SOCIAL 
GROWTH  AND  STABILITY 


A  CONSIDERATION   OF 

THE  FACTORS  OF  MODERN  SOCIETY  AND 

THEIR    RELATION    TO   THE 

CHARACTER  OF  THE 

COMING  STATE 


BY 

D.    OSTRANDER 

AUTHOR  OF    "the   LAW   OF   FIRE    INSURANCE. 


CHICAGO 
C.   GRIGGS    AND    COMPANY 
1895 


Copyright,  1894 
By   S.   C.   GRIGGS    cSc    COMPANY 


Zi)t  ILaftfstlif  iPrfss 

R.    R.    DONNELLEY    &    SONS    CO.  CHICAGO 


TO    MY    WIFE, 

THE    MONITOR    OF    MY    HEART    AND    THE 

PRIESTESS    OF    MY    HOME    FOR    WELL-NIGH    FORTY    YEARS, 

THESE    PAGES    ARE 

AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED. 


HN^4 


?  CONTENTS. 

C  _ 


-^ 


An  Industrial  Revolution,  .  -  -  13 

o 

CO     Foreign  and  Native  Labor,     -  -  -  -        18 

o 


as 


Railroads  and  Machinery,            -           -  20 

Over-Production  and  Commercial  Stagnation,  -       22 

A  Readjustment  Necessary,          .           -           -  24 

Society  to  Protect  its  Members,      -           -  -       27 

y  Not  Charity  but  Statesmanship  Wanted,  -  30 
Spencer's  Philosophy  7's.  Christian  Philanthropy,     31 

The  Brotherhood  of  Man,            ...  35 

^      No  Grapes  from  Thorns,           -           -           -  -       38 

Capital  and  Labor  to  Share  and  Share  Alike,  41 

Meeting  Competition,     -           -           -           -  -       43 

The  Eight-Hour  Day,           ...           -  47 

Society  and  Law  Coeval,          -           -           -  -       49 

The  Law  of  Human  Progress,      ...  52 

Blessings  in  Disguise,    -           -           -           -  -       59 

The  American  People  Composite,           -           -  61 

Restricted  Lm migration,           -           -          -  -       65 

5 


420394 


6  CONTENTS. 

Free  Trade  Injurious,         -           .           -  .              70 

Protection  Beneficial,              ■           -           -  -       74 

Election  Methods,    -----  76 

Inspiration  and  Opportunity  the  Need,     -  -77 

Homogeneousness  Essential,         ...  78 

Competition  the  Root  of  All  Evil,            -  -       80 

The  Government  as  a  Common  Carrier,  -              83 

The  Government  as  a  Manufacturer,        -  -       85 

Strikes,  -------  88 

Trusts,           -           .           -                      .           .  -       gi 

The  Beneficence  of  Riches,         .           -  -              gg 

The  State  to  Furnish  Employment,             -  .      -      103 

The  Inequitable  Distribution  of  Wealth,  -             105 

The  Duty  of  the  Hour,             .           .           -  .      107 

The  Building  of  a  State,  -           -           -  -            no 

Character  as  a  Social  Factor,          -           -  -      115 

Distinctive  National  Traits  to  Disappear,  -            117 

The  Genesis  of  Character,     -           -           -  -      120 

Character  Immortal,           .           .           -  -            124 

The  Influence  of  Character  JLternal,     -  -      127 

Christianity  as  a  Social  Factor,           -  -            132 

Divine  Love  as  a  Social  Factor,       -           -  -      i35 

The  Physical  Basis  of  Character,         -  -            138 

The  Philosophy  of  Intuition,  -           -           -  -      142 

The  Altruism  of  the  Future,      .           -  -             150 


CONTENTS.  7 

The  Ultimate  Destruction  of  Evil,  -           -      '53 

No  Excellence  without  Labor,  -           -  '57 

Acquisition  of  Intellectual  Rubbish,  -           -      i6i 

The  Reading  of  Books,       .           -           -  -            164 

Hard  Work  Essential  to  Success,    -  -           -      168 

Intellectual  and  Moral  Growth,         -  -             171 

The  School-House  as  a  Social  Factor,  -           -      i75 

Compulsory  Education,        ...  -            177 

The  Coming  Man  Merciful,     -           -  -           -      i79 

The  Divinity  of  Justice,     .           -           -  -            182 

Belief  in  God  Necessary,        -           -  -           -      184 

Man  May  Make  His  Own  Manhood,        -  -             187 


FOREWORDS. 


In  one  way  and  another  mankind  has  always 
been  seeking  haj^pincss.  The  })riniitive  man  may 
have  found  his  chief  satisfaction  in  appeased 
hunger,  rest,  and  dominion  over  animals  of  field 
and  forest.  With  a  somewhat  better  development, 
it  is  probable  that  the  ambition  for  dominion  on 
the  part  of  the  strong  over  the  weak  resulted  in 
outrage  and  oppression,  and  that  for  mutual  pro- 
tection tribal  relations  were  established.  Out  of 
these  rude  primitive  compacts,  society  has  grown. 
From  the  beginning  its  chief  purpose  has  been  to 
extort  justice  from  power.  The  conflict  between 
opposing  interests  has  never  ceased  ;  the  strong 
have  asserted  the  "  right  divine "  to  appropriate 
the  labor  of  others.  This  claim  has  been  con- 
tested by  those  whose  interests  have  been  threat- 
ened. The  individualism  of  the  earlier  centuries 
was  absolute  and  despotic ;  this  weakened  and 
finally  disappeared  among  the  Western  nations. 
Meanwhile,  the    races    in   their    efforts  to  find  the 

9 


10  FOREWORDS. 

largest  measure  of  haj)piness  have  so  strength- 
ened tlic  bonds  of  society  and  so  enlarged  its 
offices,  that  mutual  protection  has  been  secured ; 
and  in  this  jirotection  has  been  found  the  peace- 
ful enjoyment  of  homes,  literature,  and  art,  the 
best  fruits  of  a  civilization,  of  which  man  in  his 
primitive  state  could  have  had  no  conception. 
Between  the  creative  and  conserving  agencies  and 
those  of  a  destructive  character,  there  has  been  a 
lonsf  continued  warfare.  Sometimes  one  class  has 
dominated,  and  sometimes  another.  The  support- 
ing and  cooperating  forces  of  good  are  always 
more  constant  and  have  a  greater  vitality  than 
those  of  evil.  This  princijjle  in  the  evolution  of 
society  has  in  the  great  struggle  for  supremacy 
kept  the  interests  of  humanity  ascendant.  Not 
from  all  these  contests  has  the  good  come  forth 
triumphant  ;  there  have  been  dark  moments  in 
which  truth  and  righteousness  have  been  trampled 
into  the  blood-soaked  earth,  but  they  have  risen 
again  without  loss  of  prestige  or  power.  The 
Creating  Wisdom  saw  that  mankind  would  in  the 
best  manner  work  out  its  destiny,  if  its  best  good 
were  put  in  the  line  of  its  most  constant  effort. 
Man  in  his  limitations  of  knowledge  often  does 
things   which    bring    miscrv   instead   of    joy,   but  it 


FOREWORDS.  1 1 

is  impossible  to  conceive  of  persons  deliberately 
pursuing"  a  course  of  action  that  they  know  must 
inevitably  result  in  a  larger  measure  of  sorrow 
than  happiness.  Man's  first  desire,  and  [)erhaps 
that  which  is  strongest,  is  to  be  free  from  jjain. 
Next  comes  his  longing  for  positi\'c  j)leasures. 
These  consist  in  the  abundant  satisfaction  of  his 
natural  wants,  the  gratification  of  his  esthetic 
tastes,  the  opportunities  to  acquire  knowledge  and 
to  secure  the  esteem  of  his  fellows.  The  race 
now  understands  that  the  good  of  the  individual 
is  inseparably  connected  with  the  good  of  all, 
and  that  all  must  strive  together  in  order  to 
secure  the  highest  welfare  of  each.  But  the 
declaration  that  this  is  understood  should  be  quali- 
fied. It  is  no  doubt  true  that  everyone  in  some 
sense  feels  himself  a  competitor  v/ith  every  other 
j)erson  in  the  universe,  and  that  there  is  some 
inexplicable  antagonism  of  interest.  This  vague 
feeling  of  personal  isolation  may  })roceed  jjartly 
from  the  fact  that  man  has  not  yet  entirely 
overcome  the  aboriginal  instincts  of  his  nature, 
and  partly  because  he  only  obscurelv  apprehends 
the  fact  of  the  unity  of  the  race.  It  should  be 
the  first  j)ur})Ose  of  education  to  resolve  this 
nebulositv     into     distinct     ideas    of     duty,    and    to 


12  FOREWORDS. 

put    men    in    harmony   with    the    progressive    and 

uplifting     agencies     which     have    been    active    in 

the   evolution  of   society  and   the   advancement   of 

civilization. 

The   author,    in    offering    another    book    to    the 

public,    has    no    other     apology    than   a    desire    to 

promote  a  better  understanding  in  regard  to  men's 

relations  to  one  another,  and  to  stimulate  increased 

effort   in   behalf    of    the    unfortunate   wage   earner, 

from    whom    is    withheld     his    just     j)roportion    of 

the     benefits    which     have    come    to    this    age    by 

reason     of     the    great     discoveries    in    mechanical 

science. 

The  Author. 


SOCIAL 
GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 


AN  INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION. 

It  is  no  recent  discovery  that  man  suffers, 
chiefly  because  he  deserves  to.  With  much 
hiboriously  appHed  thought  he  has  been 
able  to  unravel  many  of  the  tangled  skeins 
that  have  engaged  human  effort,  and  defied 
the  best  virtue  and  highest  wisdom  of  his 
fathers ;  but  no  one  yet  has  been  active 
enough  to  dodge  the  forked  lightnings,  nor 
wise  enough  to  study  out  the  means  of  escap- 
ing from  the  consequences  of  his  own  actions. 
The  penalties  of  the  moral  law  are  as  inexor- 
able as  those  of  the  physical.  "  The  wages 
of  sin  is  death."  This  is  true  in  respect  to 
all  conditions  and  all  times.  No  moral  or 
social  order  will  ever  be  subject  to  rules  less 
imperative  or  less  certain  of  enforcement. 
Life  consists  of  relations  and  agencies 
innumerable  and  complex.     The  inter-action 

13 


14  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

of  these  will  j)ro(liirt;  either  harmonious 
results  or  warrin<,^  confusion,  as  they  are 
directed  by  wisdom  and  love,  or  by  folly  and 
hate. 

Starting  with  this  predicate,  it  is  to  be 
considered  wherein  in  certain  particulars 
man's  happiness  is  related  to  his  duty.  Who 
is  there  that  shudders  at  human  degradation 
and  has  tears  to  shed  for  human  sorrow,  who 
has  not  observed  with  surprise  and  alarm  the 
rapid  increase  both  of  pitiful  need  and 
unpitied  vagrancy  in  this  country?  "The 
tramp"  is  a  well-known  character,  and  is  now 
a  recognized  element  of  social  danger.  This 
unwashed  and  ill-fed  specimen  of  disorder 
and  crime  is  as  familiar  to  American  society 
as  was  a  similar  species  of  vagabond  to  the 
people  of  England  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  causes  which 
have  developed  this  social  and  moral  plague, 
this  mixed  element  of  want  and  crime,  of 
pauperism  and  villainy,  are  to  be  par- 
ticularly noticed  in  this  discussion.  To  the 
last  generation  of  Americans,  the  tramp 
and  the  potato-bug  were  unknown ;  and 
while  they  made  their  appearance  at  about 
the  same  time,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  there   is  any  relation   between  the  two 


AN   LNDUSTRIAL   REVOLUTION.  I  5 

events.  The  Colorado  beetle  is  the  most 
nauseating,  persistent,  and  destructive  pest 
the  American  farmer  has  ever  known,  and  in 
both  town  and  country  the  idle  and  \-icious 
tramp  is  abhorred  and  feared  ;  but  unlike  the 
all-devouring  beetle,  there  is  no  mystery  in 
his  appearance ;  his  origin  and  the  unfor- 
tunate causes  of  his  development  are  under- 
stood. They  may  be  clearly  distinguished 
from  the  causes  existing  in  England  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Political  dissensions  of 
great  bitterness,  a  chronic  condition  of 
excitement,  internal  strife  and  foreign  war, 
had  broken  up  and  destroyed  English 
industries  of  that  time.  From  such  like 
causes  this  country  has  suffered  nothing.  Its 
social  and  |)olitical  institutions  ha\e  under- 
gone no  change  ;  it  has  been  blest  with  years 
of  peace  and  abundant  harvests  ;  and  while 
the  discussion  of  questions  of  tariff  and 
finance  has  been  so  general  and  so  earnest  as 
to  leave  a  marked  impression  upon  the  public 
mind,  it  can  have  had  no  important  agency  in 
bringing  about  present  conditions  of 
economic  distress.  Independent  of  political 
l)arties  and  party  intrigues,  for  the  last 
(juarter  of  a  century  there  has  been  slowly 
and    steadily    going    forward    a    social     and 


1 6  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

industrial  revolution,  which  has  been 
unguided  and  largely  unsuspected  by  the 
great  mass  of  the  American  people.  At  first 
and  until  recentl}',  it  was  more  a  sentiment 
than  a  movement.  Without  directed  effort 
and  almost  unconsciously,  the  silent  germina- 
ting processes  have  ended  in  conditions  that 
are  aggressive  and  mandatory,  menacing  the 
peace  and  order  of  society. 

FOREIGN  AND  NATIVE  LABOR. 

The  physical  conditions  of  this  country,  as 
well  as  the  social  and  material  state  of  its 
people,  during  the  last  forty  years  have 
undergone  most  extraordinary  changes. 
Money  without  stint  has  been  disbursed  in 
making  permanent  improvements,  embracing 
a  vast  system  of  transportation  facilities. 
For  the  completion  of  these  enterprises,  for 
the  opening  of  new  states  and  the  developing 
of  their  rich  and  extensive  mines,  there  has 
been  much  of  the  time  a  large  demand  for 
labor  at  remunerative  prices.  To  supply  this 
demand  there  have  been  drawn  with  impru- 
dent zeal  from  England,  Europe,  and  even 
Asia,  millions  of  their  willing  but  idle  hands. 
These   strangers  have  come  to  this  country, 


FOREIGN  AND  NATIVE  LABOR.  1 7 

often  by  the  help  of  emigration  societies,  and 
always  to  find  a  hearty  welcome  and  ready 
employment  at  good  pay,  in  felling  the  forests 
and  converting  them  into  lumber,  cultivating 
the  prairies,  digging  canals,  laying  lines  of 
railroads,  building  cities,  operating  factories, 
etc.  Besides  this  imported  labor,  there  has 
always  been  a  large  native  element  of  work- 
ing men  and  women,  who  have  grown  up,  as 
it  were,  out  of  the  free  soil,  and  who  have  been 
taught  to  honor  labor  as  the  i)rivilege  and  duty 
of  every  citizen.  It  is  indeed  within  the  mem- 
ory of  the  present  generation,  that  the  boast 
of  being  the  children  of  toil  was  substantially 
true  ;  for  there  has  never  been  any  real  class 
aristocracy,  despising  labor.  There  has  never 
been  any  considerable  part  of  the  population 
who  have  been  consumers,  producing  nothing 
of  benefit  to  their  fellow  countrymen.  In  this 
particular  this  country  has  stood  almost  alone 
among  the  peoples  of  the  world. 

The  rich  comj^ete  with  the  poor,  even  in 
the  same  employments,  and  the  number  of 
persons  in  this  country  who  will  not  acknowl- 
edge their  respect  for  the  working  man  or 
woman  is  very  small.  It  may  be  admitted  that 
there  is  a  barely  noticeable  tendency  in  the 
larger    towns   to  divide    society  on   property 

2 


1 8  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

lines.  This  is  in  no  sense  pronounced,  and  in 
most  cases  will  not  be  understood  as  express- 
ing indifference  or  want  of  symi)athv  by  one 
class  for  the  other.  The  conditions  of  social 
life  refer  more  frequently  to  the  question  of 
harmonies  and  the  accidents  of  situation. 
Persons  engaged  in  the  same  class  of  duties, 
as  in  the  trades  and  i)rofessions,  find,  as  a 
rule,  among  one  another  a  more  jjrofitable 
and  congenial  fellowship.  With  others  it  will 
often  be  a  matter  of  attraction  or  propinquity. 
Companionship  is  found  in  sym[)athetic 
natures  ;  when  the  conditions  are  recognized, 
there  are  no  artificial  distinctions  that  will 
hinder  it. 

RAILROADS  AND  MACHINERY, 

If  the  last  forty  years  has  been  a  period 
unparalleled  in  building  up  and  developing 
the  wealth  and  material  resources  of  this  coun- 
try, it  has  also  been  one  in  which  the  inven- 
tive genius  has  been  especially  active.  In  the 
advancement  of  mechanical  science  there  has 
been  found  much  good  fortune.  There  has 
come  to  exist,  through  the  creative  energy  of 
genius,  a  large  number  of  useful  inventions, 
which  have  added  to  the  means  of  enio3'ment, 
and  in  many  instances  have  multiplied  immeas- 


RAILROADS   AM)    M  A(  I IIMIRV.  I9 

iiral)lv  the  i)r()(luctivc'  cai)al)ilitics  of  human 
hands.  It  is  within  the  hfc-timc  of  a  middh-- 
aged  person  that  electricity  was  unknown 
as  a  mechanical  force,  and  that  steam  even 
was  but  little  used  as  a  motor.  While  still 
on  the  narrow  border  grounds  of  empirical 
knowledge  concerning  electricity,  it  is  believed 
that  its  possibilities  for  usefulness  are  vast 
l)eyond  conception.  The  improvements  made 
in  the  steam  engine  during  the  last  thirty 
years  have  brought  steam  power  into  general 
use,  and  it  is  now^  performing  a  service  for 
mankind  that  would  tax  to  exhaustion  the 
feeble  energies  of  many  millions  of  human 
hands.  The  strangers,  too,  who  came  here 
from  the  old  world  to  dig  canals  and  build 
railroads,  were  soon  engaged  in  labor-saving 
work,  for  it  will  be  understood  that  the  carry- 
ing business  of  this  country,  if  undertaken 
without  these  facilities,  would  employ  contin- 
uously a  fourth  part  of  the  entire  population. 
In  the  improved  machinery  for  farms  and  in 
the  various  departments  of  manufacturing, 
manual  labor  has  been  so  increased  in  pro- 
ductiveness as  to  defy  all  comjnitation.  With 
these  immensely  enlarged  capabilities  of  mul- 
tiplying the  powers  of  communication  and  of 
j)roducing  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of 


20  SOCIAL   GROWTH    AND   STAISILITY. 

life,  many  unlooked-for  and  otherwise  impos- 
sible chantj^es  have  taken  place  in  business 
and  social  relations. 


OVERPRODUCTION    AND    COMMERCIAL 
STAGNATION. 

The  inevitable  effect  of  this  very  extraor- 
dinary period  of  stimulated  development, 
under  this  industrial  system,  has  been  to 
bring  increased  hardshij)s  to  the  unskilled 
and  poorer  classes  of  working  men.  Those 
who  had  been  engaged  in  the  carrying  busi- 
ness when  the  improved  facilities  for  steam 
transportation  were  introduced  and  the  old 
order  of  things  gave  place  to  the  new, 
generally  sought  emj^loyment  in  agriculture, 
mining,  or  manufacturing.  The  "young 
man  went  West,"  and  taking  with  him 
improved  machinery,  the  barren  prairies  were 
soon  transformed  into  fruitful  fields.  Towns 
sprung  up  at  convenient  centers  for  traffic, 
and  the  building  of  factories  became 
epidemic,  until  the  rattle  and  hum  of  loom 
and  saw  became  everywhere  a  familiar  sound, 
from  ocean  to  ocean. 

For  a  long  time  capital  and  labor  had 
been    the    best    of    friends.     They    had    re- 


OVKkrUODUCTION.  21 

spondee!  to  each  other's  needs  and  co-operated 
for  the  promotion  of  the  (general  ^ood. 
They  had  voted  the  same  ticket  at  the  polls 
and  read  from  the  same  prayer  book  at 
church  ;  but  at  the  moment  when  their 
opj)ortunities  were  greatest  for  serving  one 
another  and  the  public  most,  they  fell  ajiart ; 
at  a  time  marking  the  greatest  mechanical 
triumphs  of  all  the  ages,  a  period  of  unprece- 
dented opportunity,  the  close  friendly  rela- 
tions for  a  long  time  existing  between  the 
wage-earner  and  the  wage-j)ayer  were  broken 
off.  The  productions  of  factory  and  field 
have  increased  from  year  to  year,  but 
unfortunately  for  continued  prosperity,  con- 
sumption has  not  increased  in  the  same  ratio. 
Year  after  year  the  supply  has  exceeded  the 
demand,  markets  have  weakened,  prices  have 
declined  to  the  minimum,  until  to-day  there 
is  an  absolute  glut  of  everything  that  comes 
from  farm  or  workshop.  Stagnation,  the 
inevitable  result,  is  everywhere,  and  the  per- 
son who  has  no  reserves  and  no  means  of  pro- 
\iding  for  his  personal  wants  and  those  of 
his  family  except  by  the  labor  of  his  hands, 
is  the  first,  and  most  seriously,  to  suffer. 
"Man  has  wrought  out  cunningly  contri\ed 
inventions;"      he     has     with     much     thought 


22  Social  growth  and  stauility. 

and  unwearied  persistence  constructed  compli- 
cated and  tireless  machines,  that  the  labor  of 
his  hands  might  be  made  more  productive  ; 
nor  dreamed  he  ever  that  these  inventions  of 
his  brain,  the  triumphs  of  his  aj"t  and  genius 
would  in  after  time  become  a  dangerous 
competitor  in  his  hard  struggle  for  existence. 
But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  in  a  modi- 
fied sense  this  is  the  case  of  the  working  men 
to-day,  who  are  required  to  "  step  down  and 
out"  that  their  places  may  be  occupied  by 
these  competing  labor-saving  machines. 

A  READJUSTMENT  NECESSARY. 

When  the  manufacturer  can  place  a 
machine  in  his  mill  that  will  do  more  work 
and  do  it  better  than  the  wage  earner,  who 
was  before  employed  to  perform  the  same 
service,  the  wage  earner  with  his  tired  limbs, 
aching  heart,  and  immortal  soul,  which  has 
made  him  heir  of  the  ages  and  brother  of  the 
angels,  is  certainly  beaten  in  the  competition, 
and  must  inevitably  retire.  Nor  in  his  dis- 
crimination against  his  former  operative  and 
in  favor  of  the  newly  invented  machine,  is  the 
manufacturer  in  any  sense  to  be  blamed.  In 
the  "warp  and  woof"   that  goes  to  his  looms 


A   READJUSTMENT  NECESSARY.  23 

he  cannot  mix  the  tender  threads  of  human 
sympathy,  for  he,  too,  is  in  the  field  of  comi)e- 
tition,  where  only  those  who  can  produce  the 
best  article  for  the  least  money  can  hoi)e  to 
succeed.  While  over-production  is  the  imme- 
diate and  apparent  cause  of  the  widespread 
depression  and  distress  in  business,  it  is  not 
thought  that  the  causes  which  have  led  to  this 
condition  are  necessarily  permanent.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  put  aside  the  discoveries  and 
inventions  of  the  last  half  century,  but  to 
wisely  bring  about  a  readjustment  to  the  new 
conditions,  in  reference  to  which  there  must 
hereafter  be  action.  It  "goes  without  say- 
ing" that  the  effect  of  over-production  is  to 
cheapen,  and  in  this  result  only  a  small  class  is 
benefited  ;  for  the  consumer  of  one  thing,  it 
will  generally  be  found,  is  the  producer  of 
another,  and  what  is  saved  on  the  article 
consumed  is  lost  on  that  produced  ;  thus 
results  diminished  ability  to  buy,  and  thus  less 
is  consumed,  less  comfort  enjo3'ed,  and  the 
markets  left  in  a  worse  state  of  congestion. 
Never  before  were  granaries  and  warehouses 
so  full  ;  universal  })lenty  prevails,  and  there  is 
now  presented  the  strange  paradox  of  want 
and  distress  arising  from  an  excess  of  abund- 
ance.    The    explanation   is  easy ;  production 


24  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

must  Stop  for  the  want  of  a  market,  and  the 
working  man  is  without  employment  because 
the  products  of  the  workshop  and  farm  must 
be  sold  at  prices  that  compel  their  owners  to 
cease  operations.  There  are  possiljly  in  the 
United  States  to-day  more  than  a  million  jier- 
sons  who  are  able  and  have  the  desire  to 
work,  but  who  are  chafing  in  idleness  because 
there  is  nothing  to  do.  Many  of  these  have 
not  enough  reserves  to  purchase  a  ton  of  coal 
or  a  month's  provisions.  This  condition  of 
things  is  not  consistent  with  a  sound  political 
economy,  nor,  as  has  been  recently  taught, 
wnth  the  continued  peace  and  security  of 
society. 

If  the  causes  referred  to,  which  have  des- 
troyed the  equilibrium  between  supply  and 
demand,  and  with  it  the  former  stable  condi- 
tions of  peace  and  reasonable  comfort,  are  to 
become  permanently  incorj)orated  into  indus- 
trial order,  governing  production  and  forming 
the  basis  of  business  activities,  it  follows 
almost  necessarily  that  the  difficulties  of 
working  men  will  increase  from  year  to  year. 


SOCIETY  TO  PROTECT  ITS  MEMBERS. 

One  cannot  say  to  the  factory  oi)erative, 
whose  phice  at  the  mill  has  been  filled  by  a 
"late  invention,"  nor  can  he  say  to  the  com- 
mon lal)orer,  who  is  foldini^  his  hands  in  idle- 
ness, that  "there  are  wide  stretches  of 
untilled  prairie  in  the  new  states  of  the 
West,"  and  that  they  "can  find  free  homes 
and  an  abundance  of  bread  by  going  thither;" 
for  it  has  been  often  demonstrated  that  he 
who  goes  with  his  family  into  a  new  country, 
without  the  means  of  j)roviding  shelter  from 
the  storm  and  cold,  without  seed  and  a  year's 
provisions,  without  a  team  and  the  necessary 
implements  for  tilling  the  soil,  is  no  better 
assured  of  subsistence  than  if  he  had  remained 
at  home  unemployed.  Nor  can  one  say  to 
these  persons  that  they  "should  form  co-oper- 
ative associations,  aggregate  their  caj)ital, 
build  factories,  and  emj)loy  their  own  labor;" 
for  besides  the  difficulty  of  providing  capital 
and  for  the  competent  management  of  a  com- 
plicated business,  requiring  skill  and  experi- 
ence, it  must  be  remembered  that  there  is 
already  an  over-production  ;  that  the  compe- 
tition between  producers  is  so  close  and  prof- 

25 


26  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

its  SO  small  that  the  manufacturer  who  can 
control  capital  may  be  presumed  to  operate 
on  a  scale  that  will  cheapen  his  productions  to 
the  minimum  ;  and  with  the  additional  advan- 
tage he  will  ordinarily  have  in  controlling  the 
markets,  competition  will  be  found  unequal 
and  co-operation  will  suffer  defeat  when  it 
had  hoped  most  for  success. 

In  considering  this  hard  outlook  for  the 
poorer  classes  of  working  men,  it  is  often 
said  that  this  extremity  of  dej)rivation  and 
suffering  has  proceeded  primarily  from  the 
improvident  manner  in  which  they  have  used 
their  means  and  opportunities  in  life.  This 
in  many  cases  may  be  and  doubtless  is  true, 
and  ])roi)erly  enough  in  some  small  measure 
weakens  the  sympathy  felt  for  their  distress, 
but  it  does  not  lessen  the  responsibility  of 
carefully  and  promptly  considering  the  best 
methods  of  providing  for  the  future,  and 
thereby  avoiding  the  very  serious  consequen- 
ces which  are  possible  to  result,  irrespective 
of  the  special  causes  that  have  contributed  to 
increase  the  difficulties  of  the  case.  The 
exigency  is  of  so  grave  a  character  that  it  can- 
not be  met  by  throwing  back  the  blame  upon 
the  principal  sufferers,  nor  can  it  be  met  by 


SOCIETY   Tf)   PROTECT   ITS   MEMBERS.  2; 

temi)orary  expedients  nor  bridged  over  with 
occasional  charities. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  personal  respon- 
sibiHty  is  inseparable  from  every  conscious  act. 
but  morally  no  one  can  be  charged  beyond 
knowledge  of  duty  or  jjower  of  i)erformance. 
All  persons  are  not  created  equal  in  respect 
to  their  capabilities  of  judging  or  doing. 
Many  ])ersons  pass  through  life  leaning  upon 
others,  with  no  j)ower  for  indt"i)endent  action, 
and  as  incapable  as  children  in  caring  for 
themselves.  Of  course  they  are  improvident 
and  are  liable  to  be  led  into  wasteful  and 
even  vicious  ways.  Their  helplessness  and 
folly  call  louder  for  the  protection  of  society 
than  for  its  j)unishmcnt.  The  unixersal 
brotherhood  of  man  is  no  idle  fancy  —  his 
keeping  is  in  the  care  of  society,  although 
the  fact  may  be  denied.  Society  should  not 
permit  a  man  who  is  physically  strong  to 
oppress  and  enslave  one  who  is  physically 
weak.  In  the  higher  ethics  of  conduct  the 
same  rule  should  govern  for  the  protection 
of  one  who  is  mentally  unfitted  to  contest 
his  rights  with  those  of  greater  intellectual 
power. 


NOT    CHARITY     BUT    STATESMANSHIP    WANTED. 

Want  will  of  course  press  hardest  with 
those  who  have  always  felt  the  chill  and  grip 
of  its  cold,  merciless  hand,  and  have  long 
been  familiar  with  the  hard  lines  of  its  stern 
visage.  It  is  found  in  its  worst  aspects  in 
manufacturing  towns  and  large  cities ;  in 
hovels  and  cellars  ;  among  those  who  have 
been  hidden  away  in  the  world's  dark  and 
filthy  places,  whose  mental  and  moral  facul- 
ties are  undeveloped,  untouched  by  the 
warming  and  germinating  sunlight  of  religion 
and  civilization.  Want  goes  first  to  those 
who  have  suffered  much  and  reasoned  little. 
In  this  class  are  found  marked  elements  of 
disorder  and  crime,  elements  that  differ  in  no 
important  particulars  from  the  desperate  and 
ferocious  men  and  women  who  caused  the 
French  Commune  of  two  decades  ago  to  be 
long  remembered  for  its  atrocities.  If  no 
relief  is  provided,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the 
untaught  and  the  criminal  classes  in  Ameri- 
can society  may  unite  to  produce  social 
anarchy.  On  some  occasion  M'hen  the  press- 
ure is  greatest,  desperate  with  hunger  and 
cold,  they  may  demand  food  from  those  who 

28 


SPENCER'S   I'lIILOSOrilY.  29 

have  the  means  to  suj)i)ly  it  ;  and  should 
their  lawless  demands  not  l)e  complied  with, 
violence  may  result,  and  by  force  frenzied 
men  may  take,  with  danger  to  the  state,  that 
which  they  would  have  been  ^lad  to  buy  with 
the  peaceful  labor  of  their  hands.  Private 
and  j)ublic  charity  may  do  something  to 
defer,  but  not  to  avert  this  impending  crisis. 
It  is  not  charity,  but  statesmanship  that  must 
ultimately  provide  a  remedy  and  secure  the 
foundations  of  government. 


SPENCER'S   PHILOSOPHY   vs.  CHRISTIAN 
PHIL.ANTHROPY. 

At  one  time  the  Spartans,  having  in  \iew 
the  development  of  a  strong,  hardy  race, 
undertook  through  governmental  supervision 
to  select  from  among  the  infants  born  of  Spar- 
tan mothers,  which  should  survixe  and  which 
perish.  The  normal  condition  of  Spartan 
society  was  that  of  war.  Her  armies  were 
not  large,  nor  always  victorious,  but  her 
soldiers  were  brave .  and  gave  prestige  to 
their  country  on  account  of  their  prowess  and 
endurance.  It  was  soldiers  of  this  stamp  that 
Sparta  wanted  ;  vigorous,  healthy  men,  who 
could  wield  with  terrible  effect  the  spear  and 


30  SOCIAL  GROWTH    AND  STABILITY. 

battle-axe,  and  be  invincible  in  war.  There  was 
unmistakably  a  rude,  barbarous  kind  of  wisdom 
in  this  method  of  the  Spartan  law-makers  to 
develop  a  race  of  men  fitted  for  a  life  of 
danger  and  hardshij).  Sparta  exists  no 
longer  except  on  the  page  of  history ;  her 
brave,  half-savage  people  having  worked  out 
and  illustrated  their  ideas  of  greatness,  and 
having  performed  wnth  much  faithfulness 
their  little  part  in  the  w^orld's  grow^th,  have 
long  been  at  rest.  But  Sparta  gave  an  exam- 
ple of  heroism  which  has  been  an  inspiration 
to  succeeding  generations. 

The  idea  that  "the  fittest  should  survive," 
which  found  expression  nearly  thirty  centu- 
ries ago  in  the  laws  of  Lycurgus,  is  now 
repeated  in  the  philosophies  of  Charles 
Darwin,  Herbert  Spencer,  and  other  writers 
of  the  evolutionary  school.  Mr.  Spencer,  in 
his  work  on  sociology,  very  frankly  states 
that  the  best  interests  of  the  race  demand 
that  those  who  cannot  survive  by  their  own 
efforts  should  be  allowed  to  perish  ;  that,  in 
fact,  the  w^eaklings  of  the  world  are  a  great 
hinderance  in  its  development.  The  conclu- 
sions of  Mr.  Darwin,  although  not  put  in  the 
same  form,  do  not  essentially  differ.  Nature, 
say  these  teachers,  always  works  upon  that 


SrKNCKR'S   I'HII.OSOIMIY.  3  I 

principle  ;  she  throws  a  ])hink  to  no  one  who 
has  fallen  into  the  water;  her  inexorahle 
commands  are  to  swim,  and  the  indixidiial 
who  cannot  or  will  not,  must  drown. 

It  will  not  be  disputed  that  these  ])hiloso- 
phers  are  i)roceedinL(  alon<^  the  line  of  imj)or- 
tant  scientific  truths  concerning  which  it  is 
not  best  to  be  coo  exact,  and  considered  only 
as  glittering  generalities  are  entitled  to  the 
most  respectful  attention.  But  when  one  con- 
templates the  truth  declared  as  the  basis  of 
action,  a  rule  to  govern  conduct  when 
brought  into  relations  with  nineteenth  cen- 
tury men  and  women,  he  dissents  from  the 
j)roi)osition  ;  as  a  scientific  concept,  it  passes 
unchallenged.  It  is  not  physical  and  intel- 
lectual giants  that  the  w'orld  most  needs. 
Man  has  other  properties  besides  mind  and 
muscle.  These  doctrines  are  destitute  of 
sympathy  and  cannot  be  ai)plied  in  any  state 
of  society  advanced  froni  barbarism.  Science 
offers  a  good,  remote  and  problematical,  at 
the  cost  of  that  which  is  present  and  certain. 
Modern  thought  is  essentially  humane. 
Christian  j)hilanthropy  reaches  forth  its  hand 
to  the  weak  ;  it  is  never  indifferent  to  the 
infirmities  and  suffering  of  any  one  ;  it 
throws  a  plank  to  the  exhausted  and  sinking 


32  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

swimmer,  and  encourages  his  efforts  to  reach 
the  shore.  Nature,  too,  is  somewhat  kinder 
than  these  theorists  would  have  one  believe, 
for  are  not  all  weak  and  helpless  when  they 
enter  the  world  ?  The  wisest  then  are  too 
foolish  and  the  strongest  too  weak  to  care 
for  themselves.  In  this  condition  of  helpless 
inexperience,  if  left  to  swim  or  drown,  their 
doom  would  be  certain.  Nature  has  left 
no  one  in  these  perils.  Ever  watchful  of 
his  needs  she  has  taken  care  that  he  should 
survive,  and  anticipating  the  necessities  and 
dangers  of  his  situation  she  has  provided  for 
him  the  safest  "life  boat"  in  the  strong 
instincts  of  parental  love.  In  the  practical 
application  of  the  princijjle  that  the  "fittest 
should  survive,"  these  men  who  think  from 
the  mountain  tops  of  philosophy  and  apart 
from  warm,  pulsating  life,  to  be  consistent 
should  abrogate  all  laws  that  have  been  made 
for  the  poor  and  unfortunate,  affirming  as 
they  do  that  "the  w^eak  have  no  right  to 
encumber  the  strong,  nor  the  poor  to  be  a  tax 
upon  the  rich."  Indeed,  by  some  of  this 
class  of  thinkers  this  doctrine  is  plainly 
declared  and  stoutly  contended  for. 


THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  MAN. 

For  persons  who  have  never  felt  the  hard 
grij)  of  want,  seated  in  comfortable  studies, 
possessed  of  means  and  opportunity  to  make 
every  proper  desire  contribute  to  their  happi- 
ness, it  is  an  easy  matter,  and  very  likely  an 
agreeable  one,  to  discuss  in  learned  diction 
and  abstruse  philosophic  phrase  general  prin- 
ciples and  fine-drawn  theories,  to  define  with 
a  mockery  of  human  sympathy  and  love 
which  of  Earth's  sons  and  daughters  may  sur- 
vive and  contribute  to  the  world's  progress, 
and  which,  too,  are  in  duty  bound  to  take 
themselves  out  of  the  way,  that  the  elect 
world,  being  rid  of  them,  will  get  on  the 
better. 

Out  among  the  struggling  millions  no  clear 
line  of  separation  can  be  found.  There  are 
shadings  of  light  and  darkness,  gradations  of 
vice  and  virtue,  truth  and  falsehood,  honor 
and  infamy.  No  one  is  wholly  good,  and 
none  is  so  bad  as  to  be  totally  insensible  to 
the  suffering  and  love  of  his  fellows.  Thus, 
in  the  skein  of  life  are  mixed  different  col- 
ored threads.  That  one  person  is  better  or 
worse  than  another  may  cause  no  satisfaction 
3  33 


34  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STAlJIl.irV. 

or  regret,  but  why,  is  beyond  the  limitations 
of  hiiiiian  knowle(l,i;e.  Could  one  understand 
all  the  contributory  events  of  each  individual 
life,  he  would  probably  indulge  in  less  praise 
of  one  and  blame  of  the  other.  In  this  social 
body  as  it  exists  there  are  nerves  of  the  ten- 
derest  symi)athy,  which  respond  quickly  to 
every  "touch  of  nature."  There  is  a  brother- 
hood and  a  sisterhood  of  the  race,  which  no 
law  of  evolution  can  annul.  From  among 
the  lowest  ranks  of  life  have  arisen  some  of 
the  noblest  characters  that  have  given  to  the 
different  civilizations  their  special  preemi- 
nence, that  have  stimulated  the  worthiest 
aspirations  and  beckoned  the  race  onward  to 
the  realization  of  its  best  possible  ideals. 
Out  in  the  streets,  among  those  who  are  faint 
with  hunger  and  cramped  with  cold,  as  they 
seek  in  vain  for  work  and  food  on  bitter  win- 
try days;  down  in  the  hovels,  where  are  hag- 
gard and  heartsick  men  and  half-fed  and  half- 
frozen  wives  and  children,  are  found  those 
who  have  in  their  hearts  and  bear  about  in 
their  not  quite  hopeless  misery  the  image  of 
their  maker.  Men  and  women  are  there, 
with  no  w^orse  fault  than  poverty ;  there, 
because  they  are  mentally  unable  to  cope  with 
the  adverse  circumstances  that  have  hedged 


Till';    HKorilKKllooI)   i»|-     MAN.  35 

tlicni  about.  'I  hey  have  recei\'e(l  "th(^  slings 
and  arrows  of  outrageous  lortune,"  and  were 
too  feeble  in  Ixxly  or  mind  to  pluck  them  out. 
The  strong  may  rise  superior  to  circumstances 
and  ride  triumphantly  on  the  same  flood  by 
which  the  weak  are  overcome.  Of  these, 
judged  by  any  of  the  standards  of  religion  or 
morality,  one  class  may  be  no  less  deserving 
than  the  other.  Often  it  happens  that  the 
"good  grows  and  propagates  itself  even 
among  the  weedy  entanglements  of  evil."  It 
is  a  very  grievous  thing  to  suffer  from  hunger 
and  cold.  The  poor  man  who  stands  among 
his  untaught  and  famishing  children,  knowing 
that  he  is  powerless  to  answer  their  pitiful 
appeals  for  help,  while  there  are  glutted  mar- 
kets and  a  surfeiting  abundance  about  him, 
sorrowfully  realizes,  without  perhaps  knowing 
how,  that  he  and  his  family  have  been  made 
the  victims  of  some  stupendous  injustice  ;  and 
indeed  it  will  be  well  for  society  if,  under 
some  press  of  exasperating  circumstances  and 
stimulated  by  the  sense  of  personal  injustice, 
he  does  not  seek  reprisals  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  state  and  a  reconstruction  of  the  social 
compact. 


NO  GRAPES  FROM  THORNS. 

The  question  will  be  asked  —  it  has  many 
times  been  asked — how  does  it  happen  that 
this  man  and  a  hundred  thousand  others  are 
unemployed,  and  thereby  without  the  means 
of  comfortably  providing  for  their  families  ? 
Who  is  chiefly  at  fault?  It  has  frequently 
been  answered  that  governments  are  institu- 
ted for  the  purpose  of  securing  order  and 
promoting  the  best  interests  of  the  governed. 
But  it  is  declared  that  order  cannot  be  per- 
manently secured,  and  that  the  highest  wel- 
fare of  the  governed  is  not  attained  while  a 
large  minority  in  society  is  living  in  ignorance 
and  want.  Men  thus  situated  will  seldom  be 
good  citizens,  and  it  may  be  remarked  that 
they  often  become  very  bad  ones,  troublesome 
and  dangerous  subjects  of  the  state.  The 
existence  of  a  great  evil,  physical,  social,  or 
political,  cannot  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to 
any,  for  in  its  effects  all  must  in  some  meas- 
ure be  involved ;  the  general  prevalence  of 
crime  or  pestilence  concerns  all  classes,  for  all 
prize  health  and  the  security  of  their  persons 
and  property.      This  fact  is  significant  of  the 


36 


NO  GRAl'KS   FROM    lllOKNS.  37 

close   relationsliip   in   which   all   arc  l)C3un(l  to 
one  another. 

In  reference  to  social  unity,  Thomas  Car- 
lyle  has  related  how  a  "j)0()r  Irish  widow,  her 
husband  haxini;-  died  in  ()ii(^  of  the  lanes  of 
Edinbur^,  went  forth  with  her  three  children, 
bare  of  all  resources,  to  solicit  help  from  the 
charitable  institutions  of  that  city.  At  this 
charitable  institution  and  then  at  that  she  was 
refused,  referred  from  one  to  the  other  and 
heljjed  by  none,  till  she  had  exhausted  them 
all,  till  her  strength  and  heart  failed  her  and 
she  sank  down  in  typhus  fever  and  died, 
infecting  the  lane  wqth  fever,  so  that  seven- 
teen other  persons  died  in  consequence  of  the 
disease,"  and  he  then  adds,  that  the  humane 
Scotch  physician  who  had  observed  and 
reported  the  facts,  asks  as  wnth  a  heart  too 
full  for  speaking,  "Would  it  not  have  been 
economy  to  help  this  poor  widow?  She  killed 
seventeen  of  you.  The  forlorn  Irish  widow 
applies  to  her  fellow  creatures  as  if  saying, 
'Behold  I  am  sinking,  bare  of  helj).  You 
must  help  me;  I  am  your  sister,  bone  of  your 
bone;  one  God  made  us;  ye  must  help  me.' 
They  answer,  'No,  impossible,  impossible. 
Thou  art  no  sister  of  ours.'      But  she  proved 


420894 


38  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

her  sisterhood, —  her  tyi:)hus  fever  killed 
them.  They  actually  were  her  brothers, 
though  denying  it." 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  multiply  instances 
showing  conclusively  that  the  welfare  of  each 
is  the  welfare  of  all;  that  in  the  ordinary  events 
of  life,  men  are  continually  touching  one 
another.  From  this  contact  only  good  should 
result,  and  it  is  otherwise  only  when  the  nat- 
ural order  of  social  relations  becomes  per- 
verted. It  not  unfrequently  happens  that 
whole  communities  are  involved  in  misfortune 
and  sorrow,  because  of  the  ignorance  or  brutal 
propensity  of  a  single  person.  This  is  illus- 
trated in  a  railroad  disaster  which  caused  a 
shudder  from  ocean  to  ocean.  While  a  well 
loaded  passenger  train  was  standing  on  the 
main  track  at  a  country  station,  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  another  train  it  was  to  pass  on  the 
siding,  the  engineer  had  occasion  to  leave 
his  engine  for  a  moment.  A  drunken  brute 
from  a  neighboring  saloon  crept  unobserved 
into  the  vacant  cab,  turned  on  the  steam,  set 
the  train  in  motion,  and  hurried  it  away  to 
meet  the  other,  fast  approaching,  and  to 
involve  both  in  the  ruin  of  terrible  wreck. 
As  one  looks  upon  the  scene  of  this  disaster, 
hears  the  hissing  of  the  hot  steam,  the  crash 


CAPITAL  TO  SHARE  WITH   LABOR.  39 

of  the  colliding  cars,  the  shriek  and  groans  of 
terrible  agony,  hears  the  crackle  and  sees  the 
red  flames  enveloping  the  broken  and  man- 
gled bodies  of  the  unhappy  victims,  he  may 
ask  as  did  the  good  Scotch  doctor,  "Would 
it  not  have  been  economy  for  society  to  make 
a  ))/aii  instead  of  a  crazed  and  insensible 
brute  of  him  who  was  the  agent  of  all  this 
misery  and  ruin?" 

"The  stream  will  not  rise  above  its  fount- 
ain," nor  in  a  democracy  will  government 
ever  become  just  and  worthy  of  confidence 
and  support,  until  it  is  made  so  through  the 
virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  governed.  It 
may  as  well  be  expected  to  "gather  grapes 
of  thorns  and  figs  of  thistles"  as  to  expect 
that  public  affairs  will  be  faithfully  and  intel- 
ligently administered  and  property  and  lib- 
erty made  secure,  while  the  voter  is  without 
shirts  and  potatoes,  and  with  only  confused 
and  nebulous  ideas  of  his  rights  and  duties  as 
a  citizen. 

CAPITAL  AND  LABOR  TO  SHARE  AND 
SHARE  ALIKE. 

The  weak  have  claims  ujoon  the  strong, 
the  poor  have  claims  upon  the  rich,  and  it  is 
not   more   a   duty    than   it    is   an   interest   of 


40  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

society  to  enforce  these  claims  through  the 
instrumentahty  of  its  governmental  machin- 
ery. What  society  is  called  to  do  in  this 
respect  is  not  an  offering  of  grace,  a  gift  of 
charity.  No  provision  of  relief  will  be  per- 
manently useful  that  does  not  rest  upon  a 
business  basis.  The  principle  of  equitable 
compensation  must  be  affirmatively  recog- 
nized in  every  act.  The  oppressive  and 
artificial  relations  which  have  gradually 
grown  out  of  conditions  no  longer  existing 
should  yield  to  the  necessities  of  the  new  era, 
in  reference  to  which  other  rules  of  action 
must  be  formulated.  The  first  thing  to  be 
distinctly  recognized  is  the  enormously 
enlarged  facilities  for  producing.  This 
means  a  greater  abundance,  increased  com- 
forts, and  chicfiy  shorter  hours  of  labor. 
The  wage-earner  is  entitled  to  share  with 
capital  all  the  benefits  that  proceed  from  the 
better  application  of  mechanics  to  natural 
forces ;  otherwise  he  will  not  participate  in 
any  gain  which  has  come  to  the  age  through 
the  discoveries  of  science  and  the  great 
achievements  of  inventive  skill.  The  advan- 
tage secured  through  the  agency  of  improved 
machinery  is  due  in  most  cases  to  the  brain 
activity  of  the  wage-earner,  while  the  devel- 


MEETING  COMPETITION.  4 1 

opment  of  inventive  thought  has  been  aided 
by  capital.  The  net  result  is  fairly  the  proj)- 
erty  of  both,  as  much  so  as  air  and  sunlight. 
It  is  clear,  then,  that  if  the  factory  operative 
works  the  same  number  of  hours  for  the 
compensation  before  received,  he  gains  noth- 
ing on  account  of  the  improved  machines, 
while  the  capitalist  is  able  to  produce  a 
larger  quantity  and  a  better  grade  of  goods, 
without  increased  cost,  and  thereby  appropri- 
ates the  entire  benefits  of  the  invention,  so 
far  as  they  are  incident  to  the  processes  of 
manufacturing.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  as 
consumers,  the  employer  and  employe  are  on 
the  same  plane  of  advantage  ;  but  the  person 
supplying  the  labor  is  as  much  entitled  to  be 
recognized  as  a  producer  as  the  person  sup- 
plying the  capital,  and  should  share  in  the 
benefits  of  improved  machinery  to  the  extent 
of  being  required  to  work  less  hours,  with  no 
reduction  of  pay. 

MEETING   COMPETITION. 

With  the  loss  of  equilibrium  between 
supply  and  demand,  on  account  of  the  imi)ru- 
dent  stimulation  of  production,  the  markets 
everywhere   are  depressed   and   lower   prices 


42  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

prevail.  The  resultant  loss  has  been  shared 
partly  by  capital  and  partly  by  labor. 
Manufacturers  for  the  past  few  years 
have  employed  every  available  expedient  to 
meet  the  declining  markets  and  dispose  of 
superfluous  stock.  This  has  been  accom- 
plished in  most  cases  by  cheapening  the 
products  of  mill  and  shop.  This  is  generally 
done  in  one  of  two  ways  —  the  employment 
of  lower-priced  labor,  or  by  increasing  the  out- 
put ;  both  of  these  means  are  frequently 
made  available.  While  each  of  these 
methods  of  meeting  competition  affords  tem- 
porary relief  to  the  manufacturer,  experience 
has  demonstrated  that  they  operate  to  the 
injury  of  labor  by  lessening  the  wage  earned, 
and  to  the  injury  of  capital  by  adding  to  the 
stocks  of  an  already  overburdened  market. 
By  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  from  ten  to 
eight  each  day,  the  situation  is  changed  in 
certain  important  respects  as  regards  both 
capital  and  labor. 

The  first  and  most  noticeable  effect  of  this 
change  is  to  diminish  production.  If  this 
could  be  made  universal,  the  markets  would 
soon  be  so  far  relieved  of  superabundant  stock 
as  to  advance  prices  in  a  manner  that  would 
substantially    compensate    the    manufacturer 


MEETING  COMPETITION.  43 

for  the  increased  cost  of  production,  incident 
to  shorter  hours  of  work  and  higher  wages 
paid.  It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  there 
would  be  found  here  an  exact  equivalency,  as 
every  advance  in  price  would  jiresumably 
reduce  the  number  of  purchasers,  and  thereby 
affect  consumption. 

It  is  fair  to  assume  that  capital  finds  less 
profit  and  labor  the  chief  advantage  under 
the  eight-hour  system,  and  that  money  now 
invested  in  manufacturing  enterprises  will 
gradually  be  withdrawn  until  an  equilibrium 
is  again  established  between  supply  and 
demand.  The  retirement  of  capital  will 
invite  and  encourage  mechanics  and  artisans 
to  engage  in  small  operations,  where  they 
can  profitably  combine  their  earnings  and 
their  skill.  These  under  the  processes  of 
evolution  and  the  laws  of  economical  science 
will  develop  with  the  grow^th  of  frugal  and 
industrious  habits,  united  with  a  capacity  for 
successful  management.  Operations  of  this 
character  give  dignity  and  a  larger  indepen- 
dence and  self-reliance  to  the  wage  earner. 
As  manufacturing  is  now  generally  conducted 
in  this  country,  these  ventures  are  seldom 
successful.  Capital  has  been  found  to  possess 
such  advantage  as  to   make   its    competition 


44  SOCIAL  GROW  ril   AND  STAHILITY. 

destructive,  and  it  is  all  comiM-ehcnded  in  the 
one  fact  that  the  larger  scale  on  which  its 
business  is  conducted  enables  it  to  put  its 
goods  on  the  market  at  less  cost.  The  small 
operator  being  defeated  in  the  une(iual  con- 
test comes  not  unnaturally,  perhaps,  to  regard 
the  capitalist  as  an  enemy  of  labor.  For  this 
unfortunate  loss  of  confidence  and  sympathy 
there  are  no  compensating  circumstances. 
Out  of  these  conflicts,  which  have  been  fre- 
quent in  the  past,  and  in  which  the  poor  man 
has  generally  been  beaten,  class  separation  is 
gradually  taking  place,  and  class  antagonisms, 
bitter  and  relentless,  are  among  the  fearful 
possibilities  of  the  future.  While  this  is  to  be 
regretted,  there  is  found  in  it  something  of  the 
instinct  of  self  preservation,  an  assertion  and 
affirmation  of  the  individual  ego,  the  unextin- 
guishable  hopes  and  aspirations  of  the  soul 
defiantly  manifested.  If  the  poor  man  comes 
to  hate  the  rich  one,  it  will  be  because  he 
feels  that  the  latter  holds  a  power  which  is 
being  used  in  the  competitions  of  life  to 
defeat  him.  But  this  is  not  true  except  in  a 
narrow  sense,  and  good  care  should  be  taken 
that  by  misconception  it  does  not  become  a 
means  of  increasing  the  difficulties  which  this 
much  complicated  question  already  presents. 


THK  KKiin-HorR  DAY. 

The  writer  has  for  many  years  been 
brought  into  the  closest  rehitions  with  the 
hiborini;-  classes  of  the  West,  and  while  he  is 
ready  to  admit  that  their  condition  is  suj)erior 
to  that  of  the  working  men  of  either  Euroj)e 
or  England,  he  has  the  incontrovertible  evi- 
dence of  his  own  exi)erience  and  observation 
that  life  to  a  large  j)ortion  of  the  common 
laborers  and  factory  employes  of  America  is 
without  comfort  and  adequate  rest.  For  sev- 
eral years  he  was  accustomed  to  see  many  of 
these  poor  fellows,  often  half-fed  and  half- 
clothed,  going  in  the  winter  season  to  the 
factory  before  light  in  the  morning,  and  not 
returning  again  to  their  destitute  families  until 
after  nightfall.  He  has  watched  their  anxious, 
care-worn  faces  while  working  at  bench  or 
lathe,  and  has  gone  with  them  to  their  cheer- 
less homes,  has  seen  their  faithfulness  during 
the  long  weary  hours  of  work,  and  has  wit- 
nessed their  devotion  to  wife  and  children,  for 
whom  no  hardship,  endurance,  and  self  denial 
on  their  part  were  sufficient  to  procure  more 
than  a  scanty  subsistence.  He  has  found 
many  of  them  persons  of  good  thought,  gen- 

45 


46  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

eroLis  and  manly  impulses,  and  nearly  all 
worthy  of  better  opportunities  than  they 
enjoy.  While  these  relations  continued,  and 
many  times  since  they  were  broken  off,  the 
question  has  been  presented  to  his  mind, what 
is  there  in  the  industrial  conditions  of  so  much 
press  and  urgency  as  to  justify  this  sacrifice? 
No  satisfactory  answer  has  ever  been  made. 
There  is  an  abundance  of  everything  that 
comes  from  either  factory  or  field,  more  than 
can  be  used  or  sold ;  granaries  and  ware- 
houses are  crammed  to  their  utmost  capacity, 
and  many  millions  are  every  year  disposed  of 
to  the  underwriters  because  there  are  no  other 
purchasers,  and  yet  for  ten  and  eleven  hours 
each  day  hurrying  and  tired  hands  are  adding 
to  unsold  and  unsalable  stocks. 

What  great  good  does  this  boasted  age  of 
material  progress  and  mental  enlightenment 
bring  to  the  average  "factory  hand  ?"  What 
part  has  he  in  this  abundance  ?  New  inven- 
tions are  to  him  new  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
winning  bread.  Every  discovery  in  mechan- 
ical science  to  him  signifies  only  the  discovery 
of  additional  methods  by  which  his  worn 
and  feeble  hands  shall  be  made  to  compete 
with  the  infinite  and  tireless  forces  of  nature. 
He  finds  that  there  is  a  mistake  about  his 


THE   KKHIT-IIOUR   DAY.  47 

being  the  "heir  of  the  ages  ; "  that  by  some 
hocus-pocus  not  wholly  comprehensible  he  is 
being  cheated  of  his  inheritance  ;  that  others 
have  got  somewhat  of  that  which  he  is 
entitled  to  possess  and  enjoy.  The  restless- 
ness and  discontent  of  the  working  nian 
under  these  circumstances  should  not  be 
regarded  as  so  unexpected  and  extraordinary, 
nor  does  it  prove  him  the  vandal  and  bar- 
barian that  many  suppose. 

Is  the  production  of  superfluous  merchan- 
dise of  so  much  importance  that  it  must  be 
had  at  the  cost  of  a  lower  intelligence  and  a 
cheaper  manhood  ?  Are  the  conditions  of 
commerce  in  this  country  such  that  social 
progress  and  national  well-being  dei)end 
more  upon  continuing  to  force  production, 
than  in  so  adjusting  the  rules  affecting  labor 
that  a  higher  and  safer  type  of  citizenship 
may  be  developed  ?  This  is  less  an  a])peal 
to  sentiment  than  to  cold,  calculating  selfish- 
ness. The  success  of  business  enterprises  and 
the  honor  and  permanence  of  the  state 
depend  largely  upon  the  same  things.  They 
both  refer  to  stable  conditions  and  to  the 
intelligence  and  contentment  of  the  middle 
and  lower  classes.  The  writer  for  more  than 
thirty  years  has  been  connected  with   manu- 


48  SOCIAL  CiKOWlll   AND   SlAniMTV. 

facturin^^  in   the  West.     During  that  period 
he  has   many   times   seen   the   value   of    raw 
material  nearly  equal  to  that  of  manufactured 
products,   yet  the   larger  mills  and   factories 
seldom     stopped     for     this    reason.      Their 
engines    kept  up  a  ceaseless  clang,  and    the 
hum   of   machinery   was    heard    from   ten    to 
fifteen  hours  each  day.     The  employes  gen- 
erally received  their  stipulated  compensation, 
while  owners  suffered  the  loss  resulting  from 
unsalable    stocks    and    depression    in    trade. 
This  condition  of  things  was  the   direct  and 
natural    result   of    an    unwise    and    persistent 
competition,  which  must  always  happen  when 
production  is  excessive.      Had   the  mills  and 
workshops  been  operated  eight  hours  a  day, 
instead    of    ten    and     sometimes     more,  the 
aggregate  product  would  ha\'e  been  consider- 
ably   less,    markets    would     not    have    been 
forced,    competition    ^vould    have     remained 
within  the  limitations  of  a  healthy  stimula- 
tion, and  all  parties  would  have  continued  to 
be  fairly  remunerated. 

Capital  in  the  long  run  would  probably 
have  been  as  well  paid,  while  the  laborer 
would  have  been  saved  the  early  and  late 
hours  of  toil  that  add  so  materially  to  the 
hardshii)s  of  that  drudging  type  of  life,  which 


SOCIKTV   AND    LAW   COKVAL.  49 

under  the  niosl  f;i\ orahk;  circiiiiistcinces  has 
hut  little  opportunity  for  rest  and  the  acquir- 
ing^ of  social  and  intellectual  hahits  that  so 
lar^^ely  form  the  basis  of  a  conservative  and 
permanent  society.  What  is  added  to  the 
workinj;-  man's  comfort  may  without  pro- 
test be  subtracted  from  his  discontent.  The 
underfed  and  overworked  citizen  is  not  one 
on  \vhom  the  state  can  rely  in  time  of  peril. 
The  division  of  American  society  into  sepa- 
rate classes  is  to  invite  antagonisms  that  will 
endanger  both. 

SOCIETY  AND  LAW  COEVAL. 

The  building  up  of  society  has  been  a  slow 
process,  and  is  the  result  of  a  long  succession 
of  comj)romises.  Personal  or  class  privilege 
is  of  less  importance  even  to  those  for  whose 
benefit  it  is  created  than  stable  conditions 
founded  on  eternal  righteousness.  Under  no 
other  form  of  government  is  it  so  imj)ortant 
as  in  a  democracy  that  the  masses  should  be 
thrifty  and  intelligent.  The  citizen  who 
owns  property,  has  a  home,  and  wdiose  child- 
ren are  being  taught  at  the  public  schools, 
will  be  the  friend  of  order  and  the  strength  of 
the  state.  Should  the  i)olitical  and  social 
4 


50  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

Structure  be  ever  overturned,  it  will  be 
because  want  and  i^^niorance  are  at  the  base. 
The  armed  police  and  the  gatling  gun  may 
serve  as  temporary  expedients  to  suppress 
violence  and  to  teach  organized  mobs  their 
duty  to  the  law,  yet  it  must  not  be  supposed 
that  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  peo- 
ple, can  be  permanently  upheld  by  force. 
The  best  guarantee  for  order,  the  best  pro- 
tection for  life  and  property  is  that  arising 
out  of  mutual  interests,  a  mutual  respect,  and 
an  intelligent  recognition  of  the  duties  one 
owes  to  another  and  to  the  generations  that 
will  come  after  him.  Organized  society,  as 
regarded  to-day  in  its  general  aspects,  is  a 
magnificent  structure  and  a  colossal  power  ;  it 
is  perhaps  more  a  growth  than  a  creation  ;  in 
its  concrete  wisdom,  in  bud,  blossom,  and 
fruit,  it  is  the  experience  of  all  the  ages.  The 
joys  and  sorrows,  the  triumphs  and  defeats  of 
saint  and  savage,  of  scholar  and  barbarian, 
are  all  crystallized  in  this  social  compact. 
Every  age  and  every  race  has  added  its  con- 
tribution for  the  good  of  all  the  ages  and 
races  that  are  to  follow.  Society  has  handed 
down  the  law,  and  the  law  has  preserved 
societv.  The  two  are  coeval,  soul  and  body, 
without   which   life  would    be   a  burden   and 


SOCIKTV   AND   LAW  COEVAL.  5  I 

hiinuin  effort  a  failure.  One's  highest  duty  to 
the  future  is  to  j)erj)etuate  these  two  great 
institutions  unimpaired,  and  it  should  be  done 
with  a  sacred  regard  for  the  obligations  rest- 
ing upon  him.  These  are  not  degenerate 
days,  and  no  good  tliat  has  come  out  of  the 
|)ast  or  has  been  gained  by  individual  effort 
will  be  lost.  Society  knows  the  price  that 
has  been  paid  for  its  advancement,  and  will 
take  good  care  that  nothing  of  this  rich  heri- 
tage be  wasted  in  its  keeping.  In  the  j)roces- 
sion  of  the  centuries,  in  the  rise  and  fall  of 
dynasties,  organized  society  and  the  law  have 
survived  the  accidents  of  change  and  the  vio- 
lence of  passion  and  war.  The  church  has 
had  its  demons  and  the  state  its  anarchists, 
but  religion  has  shaken  off  its  fiends  and  the 
state  has  always  found  enough  loyal  and 
patriotic  subjects  to  save  it  from  being  trod- 
den down  by  madmen. 

"There  the  common  sense  of  most  shall 
Hold  a  fretful  realm  in  awe, 
And  the  kindly  earth  shall  slumber, 
Lapt  in  universal  law." 

It  will  be  a  mistake  to  act  in  reference  to 
the  difficulties  now  presented  as  though  the 
wisdom  and  virtue  of  the  age  were  inadequate 
to  arrange  an  adjustment  that  will  harmonize 


52  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

conflictin.ij^  interests,  and  start  again  in  the 
race  of  life  with  new  vigor,  new  hopes,  and 
an  enthusiasm  that  will  lighten  labor  and 
bring  larger  trium[)hs  than  any  before  gained. 
When  one  is  called  to  perform  unusual  tasks, 
and  questions  arise  concerning  his  own  com- 
petency to  act,  he  is  accustomed  to  recall  sim- 
ilar experiences  of  special  difficulty,  and  thus 
reinforce  his  confidence  by  the  recollection  of 
success  when  he  had  doubted,  or  possibly  had 
predicted  defeat ;  and  it  may  be  well,  perhaj:)s, 
at  this  time  for  society  to  look  back  a  little 
way  and  note  carefully  a  few  important  facts 
in  regard  to  the  road  over  which  it  has  come, 
weary  and  footsore.  In  this  review  there 
will  be  one  truth  always  more  apparent  than 
any  other,  and  it  is  that  one  which  has  been 
the  hope  of  the  reformer  and  the  inspiration 
of  all  good  men  —  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
dominion  of  evil  has  grown  less  as  man  has 
grown  greater,  and  that  life  w^hich  was  at  first 
a  pain  afterwards  became  a  joy. 

THE  LAW  OF  HUMAN  PROGRESS. 

Rome  in  her  best  days  not  only  repre- 
sented in  her  political  life  greater  power,  but 
she    had    also    a   better    culture,    not  of   the 


11  IK    LAW  OK    HUMAN   1M<()GRESS.  53 

esthetic  l)ut  of  the  heroic  kind,  than  that  of 
any  other  people  of  ancient  times,  Rome 
had  laws  and  a  literature  ;  she  had  states- 
men, orators,  and  scholars;  yet  her  moral 
and  intellectual  condition  w^as  incomparably 
poorer  than  that  of  the  most  backward  and 
unfavored  nations  of  modern  Europe.  Her 
political  condition  was  one  of  continued  agi- 
tation ;  her  wars  were  frequent  and  cruel. 
The  great  mass  of  the  Roman  peojjle  were 
but  little  better  than  slaxes  of  the  aristocracy; 
they  were  degraded  and  often  savage.  The 
aristocracy  was  licentious  and  brutal ;  per- 
sonal and  public  faith  was  almost  unknown; 
treachery  and  violence  were  the  common 
experience  and  the  normal  condition  of 
society.  "  Butchered  to  make  a  Roman  holi- 
day" is  an  expressive  and  significant  line, 
written  by  one  who  had  carefully  considered 
the  story  of  Rome's  much-boasted  civiliza- 
tion. 

In  the  history  of  contemporaneous  Greece 
is  found  a  slightly  increased  aptitude  for  art 
and  philosophy,  which  implies  a  moderate 
toning  down  of  the  savage  instincts  that 
characterize  a  sanguinary  age.  Greece,  how- 
ever, was  in  no  pronounced  manner  the 
superior  of  Rome  in  her  moral  develo})ment. 


54  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

With  all  her  pride  of  art  and  her  patronage 
of  philosojjhy  and  scholarship,  the  mass  of 
her  people  were  not  less  ignorant  and  bar- 
barous than  those  of  Rome.  As  late  as 
the  fifth  century  Alexandria  indulged  her 
brutal  and  ferocious  instincts  by  dragging 
from  her  chariot  Hypatia,  the  most  learned 
and  accomplished  woman  of  the  age,  tearing 
her  limb  from  limb,  and  in  the  abandon  of 
vindictive  hate  and  fiendish  cruelty  scraping 
the  bruised  and  quivering  flesh  from  her 
bones. 

As  the  ages  advanced  these  cruel  instincts 
received  from  savage  progenitors  gradually 
lost  their  rough  energy  under  the  mellowing 
influences  in  the  more  advanced  societies. 
The  dim  light  of  this  feeble  civilization  did 
not  penetrate  alike  all  the  dark  places  of 
the  earth,  not  even  of  Europe ;  its  beams 
were  irregular  and  fitful,  now  dazzling  with 
its  brilliancy,  filling  all  hearts  with  hope, 
then  again  obscured.  But  the  forces  making 
for  good  were  more  persistent  than  those 
for  evil  ;  the  inexorable  law  of  progress 
again  and  again  asserted  itself,  and  each 
generation  of  men  was  found  by  the 
historian  standing  in  better  light  than 
that   which   had    preceded    it.      Man's   Ideas 


THE    LAW  OF  HUMAN  PROGRESS.  55 

grew  larger  and  his  sympathies  kindlier. 
The  change  was  slow  and  not  always  certain  ; 
in  some  portions  of  Europe  it  was  sometimes 
difficult  to  determine  whether  the  century 
had  carried  the  people  forward  or  backward. 
As  recently  as  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries  there  was  still  in  Europe  and  the 
British  Islands  a  good  deal  of  the  unsubdued 
savagery  of  aboriginal  races.  In  Scotland 
the  war  of  factions  was  more  frequently  than 
otherwise  distinguished  by  butcheries  of  the 
most  atrocious  character.  Even  cannibalism 
is  now  believed  to  have  then  existed  there. 
England  had  been  longer  under  civilizing  in- 
fluences, but  even  here  the  feudal  lord  had  as 
absolute  control  over  the  lives  of  his  subjects 
as  he  had  over  the  lives  of  his  cattle.  About 
that  time  a  law  was  enacted  in  England, 
making  the  penalty  death  for  any  serf  to 
kill  a  stag.  The  historian  states  that  the 
prisons  were  full  of  horrors  ;  men  put  in  the 
pillory  were  maltreated  by  the  populace,  and 
the  inmates  of  asylums  for  the  insane  were 
chained  naked  to  the  walls,  exhibited  for 
money,  and  tormented  for  the  amusement  of 
visitors.  Austria  was  wrapped  in  the  direst 
ignorance  and  superstition ;  Spain  had  her 
cruel    Inquisition ;     France    was    rotten    with 


56  SOCIAL  (".ROWTII   AND   STABILITY. 

social  corruption,  oppressed  by  an  absolute 
government  and  class  aristocracy  that  made 
libertN-  a  l)v-\vord  and  i;TO\vth  impossible. 

There  is  a  broad  contrast  between  these 
conditions  of  the  jjast  and  the  sympathetic 
spirit,  kindly  feeling,  and  generous,  white- 
winged  altruism  of  to-day,  and  people  now 
ask,  "Is  life  worth  living?"  Faint  hearts 
despair  because  the  great  sky  of  blue  is 
anon  darkened  with  clouds.  That  people  are 
happier  now  in  the  better  security  of  their 
persons  and  property,  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
larger  liberty  and  of  a  society  that  recog- 
nizes more  fully  the  principles  of  justice  and 
the  duty  and  advantages  of  co-operation, 
is  not  so  much  the  result  of  special 
causes  as  the  operation  of  general  and 
immutable  laws  which  embrace  in  their  influ- 
ence man's  growth  and  ultimate  destiny. 
That  there  have  been,  and  will  continue  to 
be  until  the  end  is  reached,  special  helping 
and  impeding  causes  will  not  be  disjnited, 
but  that  the  final  triumph  of  truth  and  justice 
has  not  been  left  to  chance  circumstances  is 
as  certain  as  any  demonstrated  fact.  Ben- 
tham  states  the  proposition  that  "greatest 
happiness  was  the  creative  purpose." 
Accepting   this   as   correct,   by  the  aid    of    a 


THE   LAW  OF  HUMAN  PROGRESS.  57 

well-demonstrated  principle  of  evolution  one 
gets  at  the  universal  law  of  progress.  This 
has  been  tersely  stated  by  a  well-known 
writer  on  social  statics,  as  follows:  "Man, 
in  harmony  with  the  creative  purpose,  is 
seeking  his  own  happiness,  but  does  not 
always  succeed  in  finding  the  object  sought 
tor  the  reason  that  his  faculties  are  not  all  in 
accord  with  principles  of  absolute  right.  In 
the  exercise,  therefore,  of  these  faculties,  he 
finds  that  he  receives  pain  and  misery  instead 
of  joy  and  happiness.  Experience  teaches 
him  that  the  exercise  of  faculties  not  in 
accord  with  right  defeats  his  purpose  of  hap- 
piness, and  he  hence  learns  to  restrain  their 
use,  and  as  that  which  is  little  used  weakens 
and  ultimately  dies,  it  follows  as  a  logical  and 
inevitable  conclusion  that  man's  tendencies  to 
act  wrongly  are  continually  losing  their 
energy,  and  will  in  the  end  become  extinct." 
It  is  on  this  law,  which  is  the  basis  of 
all  action,  that  social  and  political  institu- 
tions rest  secure.  Right  doing  may  often  be 
determined  when  there  is  no  intellectual  con- 
cept, the  will  being  wholly  governed  by  sub- 
jective conditions  or  intuitive  impulsion. 
These  are  controlled  by  the  discipline  of  the 
sympathies  and  the  education   of  the  moral 


58  sociAi,  (;k()Wtii  and  s'rABii.riv. 

sense.  With  most  persons,  however,  the 
action  will  be  more  reliable  and  definite 
when  the  intellect  is  involved  and  the  motive 
relates  to  personal  benefits,  "  Ri<j^ht  acting 
proceeds  from  right  thinking,"  and  hence 
industrial  questions  primarily  belong  to  the 
school  room  and  the  lyceum. 

Man  has  to-day  the  assured  results  of  the 
discipline,  growth,  and  accretion  of  the  past, 
and  regards  hopefully  the  possibilities  of  the 
future.  Standing  between  these  two  eterni- 
ties and  related  to  both,  an  effect  of  causes 
running  backward  and  the  cause  of  effects  run- 
ning forward,  the  question  is  presented  as  to 
the  manner  in  which  he  may  contribute  to 
the  more  rapid  extinction  of  evil  and  the 
better  establishment  of  society  through  the 
acceptance  of  higher  standards  of  justice; 
and  the  answer  must  evidently  be  found  in 
bringing  him  to  a  conscious  understanding  of 
his  relations  to  the  law  by  which  his  desire  of 
happiness  is  made  secure  in  the  prudent  con- 
cord of  knowledge  and  action. 


BLESSINGS   IN    DISGUISE. 

The  leadership  in  the  adv^cincement  of 
civiHzation  has  been  the  i)rivilege  of  different 
favored  nations,  under  the  ever  changini^  cir- 
cumstances of  war  and  peace.  During  the 
past  hundred  or  more  years  England  has 
occupied  a  somewhat  distinguished  preemi- 
nence in  giving  the  impress  of  her  economic 
and  commercial  character  to  the  shaping  of 
business  and  political  ideas.  The  policy  of 
England  has  always  been  cold-blooded  and 
selfish ;  it  has  nevertheless  carried  with  it 
active  germinating  principles,  and  has  recog- 
nized and  developed  in  the  fullest  measure 
the  essential  elements  of  order  and  utility. 
On  these  all  true  success,  all  permanent 
greatness  is  based.  British  rule  has  been 
extended  in  the  interests  of  British  com- 
merce. The  barbarian  has  been  often 
bruised  and  sometimes  crushed  under  its  iron 
heel,  and  from  the  ruins  of  his  rude  and 
uni)roductive  life  has  sprung  up  workshop 
and  factory,  and  thus  it  has  happened  that 
out  of  the  wrong  that  has  in  most  cases 
followed  the  course  of  England's  venture- 
some   enterprise    and    resistless   steel,    there 

59 


60  SOCIAL  GRcnVTII   AND   STABILITY. 

]ia\c  come  forth  blessings  to  unnumbered 
millions,  who  have  found  their  highest  good 
and  Ijest  opportunities  for  haj)piness  in 
obedience  to  laws  established  in  the  interests 
of  trade. 

In  the  history  of  negro  slavery  in  this 
country  there  is  found  an  apt  illustration  of 
the  way  that  beneficent  results  sometimes  pro- 
ceed from  motives  of  the  lowest  order.  The 
slave  trader  cannot  well  be  credited  with  any 
better  motive  than  that  of  personal  gain ; 
there  was  no  altruism  in  the  "middle  pas- 
sage." Those  engaged  in  this  infamous 
traffic  were  able  to  understand  and  consented 
to  all  the  misery  which  a  ho})eless  and  abject 
servitude  brought  to  their  unfortunate  vic- 
tims. Compare  to-day  the  condition  of  the 
American  negro  with  that  of  the  African 
negro,  or  better  still,  compare  the  condition 
of  the  "colored  citizen"  with  that  of  the 
early  importation  of  his  embruted  progenitors 
of  two  centuries  ago,  and  compute  the  long 
measures  of  physical  comfort  and  intellectual 
progress  the  negro  race  has  gained  since  its 
enforced  adoption  of  a  different  life.  The 
negro  has  learned  in  two  centuries  of  servi- 
tude what  the  Indian  in  Southern  Asia  is  now 
being  taught   under    British   dominion, — that 


AMERICANS  COMPOSITE.  6 1 

order  and  discipline  }icld  tlu-ir  i)est  fruits  to 
hands  that  torture  dormant  and  slu<,^^ish 
energies  into  active  develoi)nient.  The 
colored  citizen  has  suffered  much,  and  to 
those  accustomed  to  makin((  good  bargains  it 
may  perhaps  a|)pear  that  he  has  paid  a  large 
price  for  the  growth  obtained ;  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  nature  never  sells  her 
favors  cheaply,  and  in  the  growth  he  has 
secured  are  the  germs  and  hopes  of  a  future 
manhood  that  may  be  noble  and  strong.  In 
future  years,  should  he  become  the  peer  of 
his  now  more  favored  white  brother,  he  will 
have  to  thank  for  it  the  worst  men  that  dis- 
graced the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies. The  slave-trading  butcher  and  the 
"middle  passage"  have  brought  him  under 
the  influence  of  a  more  stimulating  and 
refining  life. 

THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE   COMPOSITE. 

The  parts  assigned  to  nations  in  the 
drama  of  life  are  more  conspicuous  than 
those  ai)i)ointed  to  individuals.  With  more 
of  circumstance  and  })omi)  they  apj)ear  upon 
the  scene,  but  otherwise  the  show  ])roceeds 
in  one  case  (juite  the  same  as   in  the  other. 


62  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

England's  chief  infirmity  has  designated  her 
as  one  of  the  most  important  agencies  of 
civilization.  Her  selfishness  has  stimulated 
enterprise,  and  this  has  made  her  the  pioneer 
of  civilization.  Under  her  leadership  com- 
merce and  the  Bible  have  gone  into  all  the  dark 
places  of  the  world  ;  her  achievements  have 
been  both  good  and  permanent,  and  though 
she  may  be  compelled  in  the  near  future  to 
yield  her  leadership  to  America,  the  moral 
and  intellectual  forces  she  has  put  in  motion 
will  for  a  long  time  influence  with  beneficent 
results  the  thoughts  and  deeds  of  mankind. 

In  turning  now  to  a  further  consideration 
of  the  present  and  the  future,  one  can  per- 
haps judge  with  a  wiser  judgment,  having 
refreshed  his  recollections  of  what  has 
occurred  in  reference  to  conditions  with 
which  he  still  has  to  deal.  Shall  the  growing 
and  developing  tendencies  of  the  past  be 
continued,  or  with  the  culmination  of  the 
advantageous  agencies  before  referred  to, 
shall  man  fall  on  the  crest  of  a  receding 
wave  that  will  again  carry  him  backward  ? 
While  the  possibilities  involved  are  grave, 
they  ought  not  to  be  regarded  with  fear  or 
discouragement.  In  looking  backward  it  is 
seen  that  the  line  of  advance  has  not  always 


AMERICANS  COMPOSITE.  63 

been  a  straight  one.  There  have  been  sharp 
angles  and  frequent  departures,  and  that  this 
experience  is  to  be  rei)eated  no  one  will 
doubt  who  appreciates  the  difficulty  in  pro- 
viding for  the  unexpected  by  an  obstinate  ad- 
herence to  established  customs^  Civilization 
becomes  more  complex  as  it  advances.  This 
requires  a  greater  elasticity  and  a  higher 
intelligence  in  action.  Those  who  adai)t 
themselves  to  new  conditions  with  the  great- 
est facility  will  be  the  ones  who  will  secure 
the  largest  success. 

Cheap  homes,  remunerative  labor,  and 
free  institutions  have  brought  to  this  country 
many  people  w^ho  have  had  no  experience 
with  free  government,  and  in  most  cases  it  is 
seen  that  they  possess  but  few  of  the 
elements  of  character  that  make  a  safe  and 
reliable  citizenship.  The  organizing  of  these 
cheap  and  generally  unsatisfactory  products 
of  monarchical  institutions  into  a  conserva- 
tive republican  society  has  been  a  slow,  diffi- 
cult, and  not  always  successful  work.  With 
very  much  of  the  cast-off  rubbish  of  the  old 
world  that  has  found  its  way  hither,  there 
has  come  also  much  of  great  value  and  use- 
fulness;  for  under  the  distributive  and  vigor- 
ously assimilating  forces  of  American  life  it 


64  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

is  found  to  supply  the  necessary  constituents 
of  weight  and  permanence,  and  to  add  more 
of  strength  than  weakness  to  industrial  and 
civil  institutions.  The  Germans  have 
brought  with  them  large  brains,  industrious 
and  skillful  hands,  and  w^hat  is  still  better, 
they  have  brought  loyal  hearts  and  honest 
purpose.  A  generous  infusion  of  this  element 
warms  the  blood  and  gives  increased  com- 
mon-sense tendencies  to  the  composition  of 
the  new  race.  The  German  is  here  to 
remain,  and  he  has  shown  capabilities  of 
adaptation  that  eminently  fit  him  to  perform 
with  fidelity  the  duties  with  which  he  is 
charged  as  a  citizen  of  the  Republic.  The 
German,  while  intensely  conservative,  is  at 
the  same  time  prudently  progressive  and 
alert  in  regard  to  all  changes  that  promise 
advantage.  He  thinks  and  acts  slowly,  but 
thinks  and  acts  always  to  a  purpose.  The 
Teuton  and  Saxon  blood  mix  well ;  the 
newly  formed  ruby  currents  are  neither  quick 
nor  hot.  They  flow  with  steady  pressure, 
and  their  pulsations  are  felt  wherever  brain 
or  muscle  is  needed.  There  is  no  taint  of 
weakness  or  degeneracy  in  German-Ameri- 
can stock  ;  in  this  combination  is  found  the 
best  workers  and  the  best  thinkers. 


RESTRICTED   IMMIGRATION.  65 

Other  nationalities  have  contributed  liber- 
ally to  the  growth  of  the  American  people 
and  to  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  most  marked 
types  of  the  un-American  character.  These 
other  contributions  as  a  rule  show  a  lower 
average  of  moral  and  intellectual  worth  and 
poorer  aptitudes  for  self-government. 
Among  them  are  found  both  the  "Red 
Hooded  Radical"  and  the  /a/ss(-  fa/re.  The 
incoming  tide,  from  whatever  direction,  has 
always  brought  a  small  percentage  of  good, 
while  there  has  been  much  of  neutral  quality, 
and  much,  too,  that  was  positively  bad.  The 
first  has  been  of  advantage;  the  second  has 
been  utilized  ;  but  to  absorb  the  last  without 
detriment  has  been  a  problem  with  which 
social  scientists  have  wrestled  with  only 
indifferent  success. 

RESTRICTED    IMMIGRATION. 

As  wholesome  and  nutritious  food  by  the 
processes  of  digestion  and  assimilation  is  con- 
verted into  brain,  bone,  and  muscle,  and  as 
vicious  food  defeats  normal  and  healthy 
action  of  the  physical  organs,  corrupts  the 
blood,  and  produces  disease  and  death,  so, 
too,  is  society  healthy  and  vigorous  or  other- 
5 


66  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

wise,  according  to  the  elements  of  strength  or 
weakness  of  which  it  is  composed.  As  some 
things  in  the  living  body  are  wholly  noxious 
and  will  not  supply  waste  or  contribute  to 
build  up  any  part  of  the  system,  so  in  the 
state  many  individuals  live  and  act  in  perpet- 
ual antagonism  to  all  its  interests.  How  the 
number  of  this  class  can  be  diminished  is  one 
of  the  difficult  problems  to  which  the  econo- 
mist must  give  early  and  careful  attention. 
The  immigration  of  paupers  and  criminals 
from  Europe  and  the  inflow  of  that  turbid  tide 
of  ignorance,  filth,  and  degradation  from  Asia 
is  continually  adding  to  the  difficulties  of  the 
situation,  and  unless  timely  checked  by 
unfriendly  legislation  will  seriously  encumber 
the  progressive  energies  on  which  the  realiza- 
tion of  future  hopes  chiefly  depend.  The 
proposition  that  the  "fittest  w\\\  survive," 
while  perhaps  as  a  postulate  of  science 
deserves  respectful  attention,  must  be  under- 
stood as  signifying  different  things  at  differ- 
ent times.  Under  a  diversity  of  circumstan- 
ces that  which  is  sometimes  thought  "fittest," 
is  at  other  times  and  under  other  circumstan- 
ces very  properly  not  so  regarded.  Its  accep- 
tance as  a  scientific  truth  will  only  be  quali- 
fied to  the  extent  that  its  application  must  be 


RESTRICTED   IMMIGRATION.  67 

confined  to  classes.  Statistics  are  abundant, 
conclusively  showing  fully  fifty  per  cent  more 
births  in  the  lowest  extreme  of  society  than 
in  the  highest.  When  commonplace  wants 
are  supplied,  such  as  shelter  and  subsistence, 
unrestrained  animalism  temporarily  subverts 
the  law  of  evolution  and  impedes  progressive 
movements.  Providing  always  that  he  is  well 
fed  and  housed,  the  less  man  is  developed 
intellectually  the  greater  will  be  his  fecun- 
dity. This  operates  against  evolution  in  two 
ways,  for  which  there  is  no  compensation. 
The  unrestrained  and  rapid  reproduction  of 
such  types  of  the  human  species  as  possess  no 
high  natural  aspiration  not  only  encumbers 
society  by  the  dead  weight  of  a  ponderous 
stupidity,  governed  only  by  animal  instincts, 
but  there  will  also  arise  the  complex  disorders 
that  proceed  from  positive  tendencies  to 
Avrong.  And  again,  it  will  be  understood  that 
the  cultivation  of  the  parent  gives  increased 
aptitude  for  culture  in  the  child,  and  thus  by 
the  diminished  fecundity  of  the  most 
advanced  classes  society  is  robbed  of  the  ben- 
efits which  would  otherwise  result  from  a 
larger  aggregate  of  transmitted  traits  for 
goodness  and  wisdom. 

A  valuable    remedy  for  this  evil    may  be 


68  SOCIAL  GROWTH   A^M)  SrAlULITY. 

foiiiul  in  a  i)lcin  of  education  whicli  shall 
include  all  the  faculties,  useful  and  esthetic, 
for  which  a  normal  exercise  may  exist.  To 
the  instruction  of  the  schools  every  child  of 
I)roi)er  age  should  be  brou,ti;ht  by  the  arm  of 
the  law,  and  there  assisted  and  encouraged  in 
every  manner  to  the  accjuisition  of  such  ele- 
mentary knowledge  as  will  awaken  and  stim- 
ulate higher  aspiration  and  fit  him  to  think 
and  act  with  intelligent  judgment  concerning 
the  privileges  and  duties  of  citizenship.  One 
of  the  ablest  men  connected  with  the  public 
schools  of  this  country  has  said:  "In  our 
day  and  in  the  conditions  of  American  life  w^e 
need  all  the  powder  of  an  educated  intelligence, 
in  order  to  lift  the  masses,  as  well  as  to  main- 
tain an  equilibrium  in  the  forces  of  society. 
The  distribution  of  knowledge  is  as  necessary 
as  the  distribution  of  light.  We  need  the  dis- 
tributive power  of  systems  of  education,  which 
will  reach  the  lowest  abodes  and  penetrate  to 
the  furthermost  hamlets  of  the  land.  The 
best  education  of  the  people  wdll  then  become 
the  best  government  of  the  people." 

But  full  duty  has  not  been  performed  in 
respect  to  the  matter  of  education  when 
children  have  been  brought  to  the  school- 
room and   competent   teachers   provided  for 


RESTRICTED   IMMIGRATION.  69 

their  instruction.  Education  in  its  lar<<cr 
and  better  sense  contemplates  the  making  of 
characters,  moral  as  well  as  intellectual.  But 
very  little  of  this  is  accomplished  during  the 
school  period  of  life.  Character  building, 
which  has  for  its  aim  the  perfection  of  one's 
nature  and  the  attainment  of  the  ultimate 
possibilities  of  power  and  usefulness,  comes 
through  the  discipline  and  free  exercise 
of  man's  instinctive  tendencies.  To  accom- 
plish this,  encouragement  and  protection 
should  be  given  in  the  direction  of  such  arts 
and  industries  as  require  the  highest  skill  in 
their  pursuit.  Education  means  moral  and 
intellectual  growth.  This  cannot  result  in 
any  satisfactory  measure  when  the  faculties 
of  mind  and  soul  are  famished  in  the  sterile 
relations  of  life,  or  worn  down  and  exhausted 
with  the  drudgery  of  manual  labor.  There 
must  be  something  about  work  to  engage 
the  mind  as  well  as  the  hands,  if  the  work- 
man is  to  be  ennobled  by  the  labor  he  per- 
forms. The  greatest  philosopher  of  the 
century  has  said,  "Men  are  what  their 
mothers  have  made  them.  Do  you  doubt 
it  ?  Ask  the  digger  in  the  ditch  to  explain 
Newton's  laws.  The  fine  organs  of  his  brain 
have  been  pinched  by  overwork    and  squalid 


;0  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

poverty  from  father  to  son  for  a  hundred 
years."  Then  again,  "We  call  these  millions 
men ;  but  they  are  not  yet  men.  Half 
engaged  in  the  soil,  pawing  to  get  free,  man 
needs  all  the  helps  that  can  be  brought  to 
disengage  him." 

FREE   TRADE    INJURIOUS. 

There  is  a  very  respectable  class  of  econo- 
mists, whose  unwisdom  the  foolish  world  has 
heeded  too  long.  They  reason  with  much 
plausibility  from  such  considerations  of  tem- 
porary advantage  as  are  shown  by  a  balance 
of  trade  or  a  larger  accumulation  of  reserves, 
and  favor  the  employment  of  labor  to  the 
production  of  wealth  in  such  a  manner  that 
by  the  least  skill  shall  be  realized  the  largest 
returns  from  the  resources  which  nature  has 
provided  in  the  extent  and  fertility  of  the 
soil.  The  argument  is  that  Americans 
should  compete  in  the  markets  of  the  w^orld 
with  such  products  only  as,  on  account  of  the 
advantage  enjoyed  by  cheaper  production, 
wnll  enable  them  to  control  by  underbidding. 
This  follow^ed  to  its  ultimate  conclusion  will 
be  understood  as  a  system  of  economy  con- 
templating the  debasement  of  national  Indus- 


FREE   TRADE   INJURIOUS.  yi 

try,  by  taking  away  its  more  intellectual 
diversions,  which  require  artistic  tastes  and 
skilled  workmanship.  When  labor  is  robbed 
of  all  its  educational  accessories,  growth  will 
cease  and  the  artisan  will  rapidly  degenerate. 
If  this  free-trade  theory  were  conclusively 
sustained  by  every  other  consideration,  yet  it 
should  be  rejected  for  the  paramount  reason 
that  agricultural  pursuits  are  not  best 
adapted  for  the  development  of  the  highest 
types  of  men.  The  average  farmer,  here  or 
elsewhere,  does  not  compare  favorably  wnth 
the  merchant  or  manufacturer  in  any  of  the 
chiefly  distinguishing  traits  of  a  higher  man- 
hood, and  the  reason  is  obvious.  His  labor 
is  simple,  hard,  and  long  continued.  He  is 
dealing  with  inert  matter,  with  dumb  and 
unsympathetic  forces ;  there  is  nothing  in  the 
monotonous  and  wearisome  round  of  his 
duties  to  demand  constant  and  severe  mental 
action.  From  disuse,  or  used  only  in  refer- 
ence to  a  narrow  range  of  simple  duties,  the 
mental  faculties  become  weak  and  torpid, 
resulting  at  last  in  permanent  degeneracy. 
This  impairment  is  transmitted  from  parent 
to  child,  and  thus  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion the  evil  gradually  increases,  until  healthy 
and  vigorous  mentality  is  lost.      This  in  the 


72  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

older  countries  has  been  the  experience  of 
all  distinctly  pastoral  people.  Goldsmith  saw 
this,  and  in  his  **  Deserted  Village"  described 
what  is  here  stated. 

"The  swain  responsive  as  the  milkmaid  sung, 
The  sober  herd  that  low'd  to  meet  their  young ; 

The  watch-dog's  voice  that  bay'd  the  whispering  wind, 
And  the  loud  laugh  that  spoke  the  vacant  mind." 

In  performing  mechanical  labor  the  case 
is  far  otherwise.  There,  mental  activity  and 
often  intense  thought  are  the  indispensable 
conditions  of  success.  From  constant  use 
these  higher  faculties  grow  and  in  time 
become  robust  in  their  enlarged  capabilities 
for  power  and  usefulness.  No  state  or  large 
community,  engaged  solely  in  pastoral  or 
agricultural  pursuits,  has  ever  distinguished 
itself  for  learning,  statescraft,  or  deeds  of 
heroism.  On  the  other  hand,  England  is  a 
notable  instance  of  a  manufacturing  and 
commercial  people,  exhibiting  an  intellectual 
vigor  that  for  a  long  period  has  given  her  a 
position  of  the  proudest  eminence  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  From  circumstance 
rather  than  from  choice  they  have  been 
engaged  in  doing  those  things  which  have 
compelled  them  to  think  as  a  part  of  their 


FREE  TRADE  INJURIOUS.  73 

labor.  This  thought  has  made  them  great. 
England's  own  great  poet  has  proudly  said 
of   her: 

"This  England  that  never  did 
Lie  at  the  foot  of  conqueror, 
This  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  sceptered  isle, 
This  earth  of  majesty  and  seat  of  Mars, 
This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world, 
A  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 
O  England,  model  of  thy  inward  greatness, 
Like  little  body  with  a  mighty  heart." 

As  commercial  and  manufacturing  employ- 
ments tend  to  develop  more  of  strength  and 
refinement  and  have  more  in  their  nature 
and  opportunities  that  is  educational  they 
should  be  preferred  to  any  of  the  lower 
forms  of  manual  labor,  and  encouraged  as 
contributing  to  the  progressive  agencies  that 
are  to  prepare  the  American  people  to  lead 
in  the  civilization  of  the  twentieth  century. 

A  crisis  has  now  been  reached  in  this 
country  in  social  and  industrial  life,  and  it 
ought  to  be  met  in  a  resolute  but  just  and 
liberal  spirit.  There  should  be  no  compro- 
mise with  lawlessness  on  the  one  hand,  and 
no  arbitrary  class  insistence  on  the  other.  A 
difficult  question  is  presented,  which  should 
be  settled  consistent  with  a  proper  recogni- 
tion of  the  right  of  capital  to  be  protected 


74  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

and  the  right  of  labor  to  be  compensated. 
The  good  sense  and  patriotism  of  the  citizen 
should  not  be  appealed  to  in  vain,  when 
interests  of  such  vast  importance  are  con- 
cerned. 

PROTECTION    BENEFICIAL. 

Americans  should  become  a  manufactur- 
ing people,  without  neglecting  their  agricul- 
tural interests,  and  this  largely  from  social 
and  political  considerations.  Economics 
should  have  no  place  in  a  consideration  of 
these  matters,  except  so  far  as  the  produc- 
tion or  conservation  of  wealth  is  favorable  to 
universal  progress.  The  human  mind  is 
endowed  with  an  infinite  variety  of  aptitudes 
to  give  expression  and  effect  to  its  latent 
energies.  Skilled  industries  w^ill  need  to  be 
given  unrestricted  opportunities  ;  unless  these 
are  carefully  nurtured  and  protected  during 
their  infancy  they  will  succumb  to  the  press- 
ure of  competition  on  the  part  of  countries 
where  similar  enterprises  have  been  long 
established.  For  a  long  period  it  has  been 
the  policy  of  this  government  to  afford  pro- 
tection to  the  higher  forms  of  labor,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  now  over- 
whelmingly the  sentiment  of  the  country  that 


PROTECTION  BENEFICIAL.  75 

this  policy  shall  continue.  Nowhere  is 
skilled  labor  better  paid  or  more  honored 
than  in  America.  All  classes  sympathize  in 
its  struggles  and  rejoice  in  its  achievements. 
The  different  departments  of  manufacturing, 
when  not  directly  competing,  sympathize 
with  one  another,  and  united  they  hold  a 
political  power  which  no  party  can  prudently 
disregard.  Manufacturing,  too,  has  in  most 
instances  the  support  of  local  interests  that 
receive  some  direct  benefits  from  the  invest- 
ment of  capital  or  the  employment  of  labor. 
These  interests  are  generally  sufficiently 
potential  to  find  voice  in  the  halls  of  legisla- 
tion. 

In  operating  immense  and  almost  infinitely 
diversified  industries  the  wage  earner  learns 
to  think,  and  by  the  process  of  thinking  the 
quality  of  his  citizenship  will  be  improved. 
Caesar  said  of  Cassius,  "He  thinks  too  much." 
Among  the  working  classes  there  is  little 
danger  to  be  apprehended  from  this  cause. 
The  real  peril  comes,  as  has  been  pointed  out, 
from  not  thinking  at  all.  When  men  act  from 
passion  and  brute  instinct,  there  is  danger. 
They  who  think  at  all  will  in  time  learn  to 
think  rightly,  and  from  right  thinking  comes 
the  fruitage,  right  acting. 


ELECTION    METHODS. 

The  methods  of  conducting  elections  in 
this  country  involve  an  extravagant  waste  on 
account  of  the  means  employed  to  control 
votes.  The  estimate  of  $100,000,000  as  the 
cost  of  a  presidential  election  is  no  doubt  a 
very  conservative  one.  The  direct  and 
legitimate  outlay  of  time  at  public  meetings, 
parades  and  spectacular  entertainments,  and 
the  inevitable  loss  from  derangement  of  busi- 
ness affairs,  are  represented  in  the  aggregate 
by  an  unknown  but  colossal  sum.  The  meas- 
ure of  compensation  returned  is  also  large. 
If  this  enormous  expenditure  is  necessary  at 
all,  it  is  only  so  because  of  the  educational 
benefits  it  secures.  There  are  many  persons 
who  deposit  their  ballot  with  persistent  regu- 
larity, who  know  almost  nothing  of  the 
government  under  which  they  live  except 
what  they  learn  from  the  campaign  orator. 
In  this  hot  agitation  of  thought  some  truth  is 
gained,  and  by  this  form  of  popular  discus- 
sion the  untutored  voter  gets  some  vague 
conceptions  of  what  is  right  and  is  made  to 
feel  some  warmer  glow  of  patriotism.  This 
canvass    is   a   kind    of    necessary   evil    which 

76 


INSriRATION    AND   OPrOKTUNITV.  JJ 

should  be  outgrown  as  (quickly  as  possible, 
and  the  educational  advantages  it  is  in- 
tended to  secure  should  be  provided  for  by 
less  expensive  and  less  violent  methods. 

INSPIRATION     AND     OPPORTUNITY     THE     NEED. 

The  governments  of  the  world  are  largely 
maintained  to  protect  society  from  the  depre- 
dations of  persons  who  are  struggling,  and 
often  bravely,  against  brute  instincts  for  the 
mastery  of  their  own  souls.  It  will  be  more 
in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity  to 
put  forth  an  honest  effort  to  raise  such  to  a 
condition  of  comfort,  and  by  sympathy  and 
counsel  to  stimulate  a  spiritual  and  mental 
growth  that  will  reinforce  and  direct  what- 
ever there  is  of  good  and  brave  in  their  lives. 
Where  there  is  no  knowledge,  there  will  be 
no  virtue,  no  security,  no  progress.  Vice, 
wretchedness,  and  danger  will  take  their 
places.  In  a  thousand  ways  and  at  a 
thousand  times  want  and  misery  raise  their 
hopeless,  hollow  voices  to  pitying  ears,  ask- 
ing not  charity  but  opportunity.  These 
voices  cannot  be  ignored  nor  silenced.  It  is 
in  the  divine  order  that  weakness  should 
stretch  out  its  hand  to  the  strong,  to  the  end 


78  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

that  both  should  be  blessed,  the  one  by 
giving,  the  other  by  receiving.  The  God  of 
the  wise  and  the  strong  is  also  the  God  of 
the  weak  and  the  foolish,  and  it  would  ill 
comport  with  eternal  justice  that  one  should 
go  forward  and  the  other  be  left.  The  fact 
must  be  recognized  that  one  cannot  get  on 
successfully  without  his  brother;  it  is  so 
written  in  the  constitution  of  things,  and  no 
system  of  philosophy  or  selfish  and  perverted 
social  order  can  change  or  reverse  the  fact. 
When  these  people,  for  whom  the  sun  shines 
that  they  may  labor  without  requital  and  for 
whom  the  darkness  falls  that  they  may  suffer 
without  hope,  are  given  an  inspiration  and  an 
opportunity,  and  are  found  stepping,  however 
slowly,  in  the  advancing  line,  the  millennium 
of  peace  and  national  prosperity  is  not  far  off. 

HOMOGENEOUSNESS   ESSENTIAL. 

The  Roman  Empire  grew  by  conquest.  It 
w^as  made  up  of  many  peoples  having  differ- 
ent languages.  There  was  no  cement  of  a 
common  sympathy,  no  cohesive  interest  to 
hold  them  together,  and  when  the  central 
power  weakened,  the  dissonant  elements  fell 
apart.     As  in  Rome,  all  the  languages  of  the 


HOMDGKNEOUSNKSS   ESSENTIAL.  79 

world  are  spoken  in  their  mother  tongue  by 
American  citizens  ;  but  unHke  Rome,  there  is 
here  a  unity  of  interest  and  a  common  sym- 
pathy that  obHterates  distinctions  of  race  and 
merges  all  nationalities  into  one.  It  may  be 
"manifest  destiny"  that  this  country  shall 
embrace  Canada,  Mexico,  Central  America, 
and  the  West  Indies.  But  it  is  the  part  of 
wisdom  to  "go  slow"  in  extending  territorial 
limits  ;  a  more  extended  dominion  may  be  a 
source  of  weakness  rather  than  of  strength. 
What  is  needed  and  should  be  striven  for  is 
to  secure  for  the  wage  earner  more  comfort, 
larger  and  quicker  mental  perceptions.  With 
these  will  come  a  love  of  country  that  will 
blend  all  differences  of  opinion,  all  distinctions 
of  interest  and  class  into  an  Americanism  that 
will  be  noble  and  enduring.  Whatever  is  best 
will  ultimately  result  as  proceeding  from  the 
discipline  of  living,  in  the  experience  of  slowly 
changing  years.  Impediments  over  which 
preceding  generations  have  stumbled  and  fal- 
len will  retard  less  the  more  intelligent  efforts 
and  vigorous  upward  tendencies  of  succeeding 
ones.  Over  all  is  the  shield  of  infinite  love; 
in  and  around  all  is  the  eternal  law  of  prog- 
ress, condenining  wrong  with  its  extermina- 
ting fiats,  uj)lifting  with  purer  and  juster  inspi- 


80  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

rations,  and  moving  forward  with  majestic 
consensus  to  the  highest  line  of  perfection  all 
the  races  and  tribes  of  men. 


COMPETITION   THE    ROOT    OF    ALL    EVIL. 

"The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart"  that 
"competition  is  a  good  thing,"  and  no  doubt 
imagines  that  if  it  w^ere  withdrawn  he  would 
be  the  subject  of  extortion  on  all  hands.  To 
this  belief,  which  is  a  common  one,  is  charge- 
able more  hardship,  financial  ruin,  and  crime 
than  any  other  one  cause,  not  excepting  origi- 
nal sin.  While  competition  may  be  the  life 
of  trade,  it  is  the  ruin  of  a  large  majority  of 
traders.  It  is  the  hoodoo  of  all  business 
except  the  sale  of  patent  rights.  A  railway  is 
constructed  to  compete  with  another  railway, 
and  those  who  have  invested  their  money  in 
an  enterprise  of  public  utility  lose  all.  Two 
manufacturers,  each  enjoying  a  moderate  and 
fairly  remunerative  trade,  undertake  by  cut- 
ting prices  to  secure  the  patronage  enjoyed 
by  the  other.  The  lower  prices  necessitate 
lower  wages  for  the  employes  and  less  profits 
for  themselves.  The  merchant  repeats  the 
folly  of  the  manufacturer ;  the  madness 
becomes  epidemic,  and  every  department  of 


COMPETITION  THE   ROOT  OF  EVIL.  8 1 

business  feels  its  withering  influence.  Out  of 
one  hundred,  five  or  ten  persons  may  be 
found  possessed  of  such  exceptional  talent  for 
business  as  to  be  able  to  survive  a  competition 
that  has  left  in  bankruptcy  ninety  per  cent  of 
their  fellow  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
Many  millions  of  dollars  each  year  are  lost  in 
this  way  by  manufacturers,  their  creditors  and 
employes,  and  no  one  receives  a  compensating 
benefit.  Competition  is  the  root  of  all  this 
labor  trouble.  It  is  well  known  that  but  few 
of  the  railroads  of  America  have  been  able  to 
pay  running  expenses  and  interest  on  the  cost 
of  the  plant;  but  the  cut-rate  must  be  met,  and 
to  do  this  and  pay  interest  on  bonds  wages  are 
scaled  down.  The  wrong  in  a  large  majority 
of  cases  proceeds  from  a  rate  of  transportation 
that  impairs  the  resources  of  the  company  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  make  necessary  a  reduc- 
tion in  expenses  or  a  default  in  meeting  fixed 
obligations.  And  what  is  here  said  in 
regard  to  railroads  is,  in  most  instances,  true 
in  a  different  form  concerning  manufactures. 
The  products  of  the  factory  are  sold  at  too 
low  a  figure  to  afford  such  a  profit  as  will  pay 
just  wages  and  a  fair  interest  on  the  capital 
invested.  This  condition  is  general,  and  who 
is  to  be  blamed?  Not  the  employe  ;  neither 
6 


82  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND   STABILITY. 

is  it  the  owner  of  the  mill,  who  must  either 
stop,  or  conduct  his  business  as  it  is  done  by 
other  persons, — in  other  words,  he  must  with- 
draw his  goods  from  the  market  unless  he  is 
willing  to  sell  at  the  price  made  by  the  com- 
peting mills.  He  may  have  absolutely  no 
choice  in  this  matter,  and  should  the  opera- 
tives demand  an  advance  in  wages  it  may  be 
refused  and  a  strike  result,  or  the  increased 
wage  may  be  taken  from  the  profits  on  capital 
or  from  capital  itself.  In  either  case  the  mill 
must  stop  or  run  at  a  loss.  The  manufac- 
turer is  frequently  as  powerless  to  control  the 
conditions  under  which  he  is  required  to  act 
as  the  striking  employes,  who  dictate  terms 
with  which  compliance  is  impossible.  There 
can  be  no  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  labor 
problem  until  the  evil  of  competition  is  first 
disposed  of.  This  may  be  done  on  the  ultra- 
socialistic  plan  of  the  government  assuming 
charge  of  the  manufacturing  and  transporta- 
tion of  the  country,  or  by  the  creation  of 
trusts  that  shall  regulate  all  business  of  a  com- 
petitive character.  Another  plan  having 
practically  the  same  object  is  the  strike. 


THE   GOVERNMENT   AS   A    COMMON   CARRIER. 

It  is  believed  that  the  orovernment  can 
operate  railroads  and  other  lines  of  transpor- 
tation without  exceedintr  its  legitimate  func- 
tions. In  the  mail  service  the  government 
has  shown  great  efficiency,  and  it  is  claimed 
with  much  plausibility  that  the  public  inter- 
ests can  as  well  be  advanced  by  the  govern- 
ment assuming  the  carriage  of  passengers  and 
freights,  as  of  letters,  books,  and  small  parcels 
of  merchandise.  This  business  has  a  quasi- 
public  character,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  under- 
stand why  government  in  the  exercise  of  its 
functions  as  a  mail  carrier  may  not  properly 
enough  extend  its  service  to  include  general 
transportation  and  passenger  traffic.  No  one, 
probably,  would  advise  that  the  government 
should  abandon  the  mail  service  it  has  man- 
aged so  long  and  so  well.  It  has  served  the 
public  at  the  maximum  of  efficiency  and  the 
minimum  of  cost,  and  can  it  be  successfully 
shown  that  like  satisfactory  results  could  not 
be  attained  by  the  government  as  a  common 
carrier?  That  the  scheme  imports  vast  oper- 
ations signifies  no  valid  reason  why  it  should 
not  be  adopted.      The  mail  service  is  exten- 

83 


84  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

sive  and  complicated,  and  yet  as  a  part  of  the 
system  of  government  the  milHons  of  mail 
pouches  are  kept  moving  with  speed  and  reg- 
ularity, serving  a  nation  of  letter  writers  and 
newspaper  readers  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
cause  no  word  of  criticism.  If  there  is  any 
one  thing  concerning  which  Americans  have 
unqualified  confidence,  it  is  in  the  dispatch  of 
the  mail-bags.  It  requires  no  better  talent  or 
higher  skill  to  navigate  a  merchant  vessel 
than  to  command  a  man-of-war,  and  if  gov- 
ernment can  manage  navy  yards  for  building 
and  repairing  w^ar  ships,  w^ithout  detriment  to 
the  public  interests,  why  may  it  not  maintain 
shops  for  building  and  repairing  railway  cars? 
It  is  believed  that  a  competent  control  or  gen- 
eral management  of  the  entire  system  of 
American  railways,  having  only  In  view  the 
public  service,  could  bring  out  of  the  present 
chaos  of  conflicting  interests  a  harmony  of 
action  that  would  in  the  end  improve  values 
and  give  to  these  Immense  properties 
Increased  usefulness.  An  experiment  of  this 
kind  w^ould  no  doubt  be  approved  by  a  large 
majority  of  the  American  people,  and  by 
gradual  absorption  of  connecting  lines,  in  the 
course  of  twenty  years  the  whole  system  could 


THE  GOVERNMENT  A  MANUFACTURER.  85 

perhaps    with    advantage    be  brought    under 
government  control. 

The  roads  to  which  government  has  given 
aid  could  in  some  instances  be  purchased,  no 
doubt,  on  terms  of  such  advantage  that  the 
investment  would  prove  an  economy,  as  its 
large  interests,  now  imperiled,  could  in  that 
manner  be  protected.  To  buy  all  of  that  class 
of  roads  would  require  an  issue  of  bonds  of 
but  little  less  than  $200,000,000,  a  sum  not  so 
large  as  to  cause  fright  to  a  people  that  have 
been  able  in  thirty  years  to  pay  the  expense 
and  repair  the  damage  of  the  most  destruc- 
tive of  modern  wars. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AS  A  MANUFACTURER. 

In  the  manufacture  of  merchandise  for  the 
general  market  the  government  has  no  duty 
to  perform  of  a  public  character,  and  the  best 
interests  of  the  state  demand  that  it  should 
not  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  in 
that  direction.  Manufacturing  is  almost  infi- 
nite in  its  variety  and  detail,  and  the  master 
spirit  of  every  successful  mill  must  have  spe- 
cial talent  and  aptitude  for  the  particular 
work  carried  on.     When  this  amounts  to  gen- 


86  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

ius  there  is  in  production  differentiation,  and 
the  markets  are  presently  supplied  with  goods 
of  better  workmanship  and  richer  design.  It 
will  require  the  inspiration  of  a  personal 
interest  in  manufacturing  and  art  to  develop 
the  best  capabilities  of  the  directing  mind. 
But  the  pernicious  effect  on  trade  and  the 
inferior  quality  of  the  goods  manufactured 
cannot  be  regarded  as  the  most  serious  conse- 
quences to  be  expected  from  the  governmen- 
tal management  of  this  important  class  of 
business,  which  heretofore  has  flourished  and 
grown  in  complexity  and  magnitude  by  means 
of  individual  enterprise  and  skill.  What  is 
most  w^anted  in  America  are  men.  There  Is 
no  advantage  to  be  gained  in  respect  to  busi- 
ness and  social  conditions  that  will  adequately 
compensate  for  the  loss  of  mental  vigor  and 
self-respect.  Largeness  and  strength  can 
come  only  to  those  who  are  charged  with 
duties  of  unusual  difficulty.  Persons  of  this 
character  must  have  opportunity  ;  unre- 
stricted liberty  of  action  makes  the  stalwart. 
Freedom  denied  and  opportunity  limited  to 
the  most  commonplace  duties,  the  stalwart 
becomes  a  pigmy  and  the  hero  a  coward. 
Men  of  high  aspiration  must  not  perform 
tasks  which   others   have   set.      Conscious   of 


THE  GOVERNMENT  A  MANUFACTURER.  8/ 

their  power  and  faith  in  the  divinity  of  their 
appointment,  they  should  go  forth,  protesting 
their  individuaHty  and  the  right  each  for  him- 
self to  choose  the  agencies,  whether  they  be 
of  brain  or  muscle,  by  which  he  shall  best 
serve  himself  and  his  fellow  beings.  Man 
must  think  in  his  work,  otherwise  the  bravest 
struggle  for  existence  will  have  no  better 
result  than  the  development  of  muscle,  and 
the  brain  will  degenerate  from  disuse.  The 
forces  of  nature  are  persistent,  and  that  organ 
or  faculty  which  is  used  continuously  in  con- 
nection w^ith  regular  vocations  will,  in  most 
cases,  have  a  normal  and  vigorous  growth. 
The  occasional  demand  is  unheeded,  and 
such  faculties  of  mind  or  body  as  are  seldom 
used  lose  their  tension  and  in  time  atrophy 
results. 

In  a  democracy  it  is  of  the  first  importance 
that  the  citizen  should  have  thoughts  as  well 
as  hands,  and  that  the  first  should  always 
guide  the  last.  In  this  way  only  can  he 
maintain  a  personal  independence  and  dig- 
nity, without  which  he  is  soon  lost  as  a  sup- 
port and  upbuilding  agency  of  the  state. 
This  will  inexorably  happen  when  he  is  for- 
bidden to  manage  his  own  affairs,  trivial  or 
important,   simple   or   complex.      No  expedi- 


88  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

ents  can  be  justified  that  have  in  contempla- 
tion the  sacrifice  or  withdrawal  of  intellectual 
and  moral  agencies  in  the  growth  and  devel- 
opment of  those  who  are  now  and  hereafter 
to  direct  the  state  and  to  give  to  American 
society  its  "beams  and  rafters." 

STRIKES. 

The  strike  has  been  the  means  chiefly 
employed  for  defeating  competition  and  con- 
trolling the  market  for  labor.  That  this 
plan  should  have  been  adopted  by  the  wage 
earner  in  preference  to  the  others  mentioned 
for  protecting  his  wages  from  the  pillage  of  a 
merciless  competition,  is  not  difficult  to 
understand.  The  social  or  community 
feature  of  all  the  earlier  strikes  shows  that  it 
was  originally  democratic,  and  that  the  des- 
potic rule  to  which  labor  organizations  are 
now  subject  may  be  regarded  as  a  departure 
taken  on  account  of  a  necessity  developed  for 
a  close  bond  and  a  government  more  abso- 
lute in  its  form  and  character.  The  strike  is 
a  simple  and  direct  method  of  accomplishing 
the  object  sought,  but  it  has  seldom  been 
found  effective,  and  in  nearly  all  cases  has 
been   attended   with    much    lawless   violence, 


STRIKES.  8g 

causing  a  permanently  embittered  feeling 
between  employer  and  employe.  Strikes, 
too,  have  been  enormously  wasteful  in 
respect  both  to  the  loss  of  time  and  property. 
Many  thousands  of  men  have  remained 
unemployed,  sometimes  for  months,  causing 
often  extreme  destitution  and  suffering.  The 
stopping  of  large  manufacturing  establish- 
ments has  often  affected  injuriously  other 
industries  and  business  interests  not  directly 
involved  and  in  no  manner  responsible  for 
the  strike.  In  1894,  on  account  of  an  alleged 
wrong  on  the  part  of  a  private  corporation 
doing  business  at  Pullman,  Illinois,  important 
manufacturing  and  transportation  business  of 
several  states  was  seriously  embarrassed  for 
weeks,  much  property  destroyed,  many  lives 
sacrificed,  the  peace  of  a  large  district 
broken,  and  the  authority  of  the  law  defied. 
This  strike  produced  incalculable  injury,  and 
should  be  to  the  whole  w^orld  an  object  lesson 
not  soon  to  be  forgotten.  For  many  days  in 
Chicago  and  Sacramento,  and  in  several 
smaller  cities,  the  civil  law  was  disregarded 
by  large  bodies  of  men  and  women,  the  mails 
stopped,  and  the  transportation  business  so 
interfered  with  that  at  different  places  trains 
could  be  moved   only   under    the   protection 


90  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

of  troops.  The  loss  to  persons  directly 
Involved,  while  considerable,  was  small  in 
comparison  to  the  injury  sustained  by  related 
interests.  A  nation  of  industrious  and  busy 
people  cannot  be  suddenly  confronted  with 
unexpected  conditions  that  make  it  necessary 
to  abandon  plans  on  which  they  are  acting 
and  to  form  new  ones,  without  serious  incon- 
venience and  loss.  The  strike  of  1894,  in 
one  way  and  another,  resulted  in  a  waste 
amounting  to  many  millions  of  dollars,  and 
the  benefits  to  any  one  are  not  easily  distin- 
guishable, unless  they  may  be  found  in  a  sat- 
isfactory demonstration  of  the  fact  that  com- 
petition cannot  be  best  regulated  in  that 
manner. 

The  strike  is  a  simple  and  available  means 
of  redress  to  organized  bodies,  but  it  stirs  up 
antagonisms  by  its  attitude  of  resistance  and 
appeals  to  passion  and  force.  From  the  cir- 
cumstances and  nature  of  the  case  strikes 
must  frequently  result  in  violence,  and  the 
inevitable  result  to  which  this  lawless  and 
practically  ungoverned  force  leads  is  the 
separation  of  society  into  two  distinct  classes, 
each  hostile  to  the  other.  When  this  occurs, 
government  by  the  people  Is  at  an  end. 
The  theory  of  the  strike  is  that  it  is  peace- 


TRUSTS.  91 

able  and  its  purpose  good.  This  purpose  it 
fails  to  accomplish,  and  in  the  practical 
execution  of  its  plans  the  law  is  disregarded, 
personal  rights  are  wantonly  trampled  upon, 
and  security  to  life  and  property  is  taken 
away.     This  is  civil  war. 

TRUSTS. 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  tenacity 
wnth  which  the  public  holds  to  certain  absurd 
beliefs  concerning  the  economy  of  business. 
These  are  frequently  made  up  of  mischievous 
prejudices,  and  are  without  any  ascertainable 
cause.  In  the  earlier  part  of  this  discussion 
it  was  pointed  out  that  for  a  long  time  there 
has  been  an  established  opinion  that  the  best 
interests  of  the  community  would  be  promoted 
by  stimulating,  in  reference  to  all  classes  of 
business,  a  spirit  of  active  competition,  and 
this  it  was  endeavored  to  show  has  been  a 
mistake  from  which  labor  troubles  have 
largely    proceeded. 

There  is  now  to  be  considered  another 
harmful  prejudice,  which  has  taken  a  strong 
hold  on  the  public  mind,  and  one  as  unjust  as 
it  is  baseless.  Hostility  to  trusts  has  been 
declared  everywhere  and  at  all  times.    Trusts 


92  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

have  been  the  targets  of  demagogic  and  pes- 
simistic speakers  and  writers  so  long  that  they 
now  become  a  "  raw  head  and  bloody  bones" 
to  frighten  timid  people  into  bitterly  and  per- 
sistently opposing  a  class  of  corporations  that 
has  always  exercised  a  steadying  and  con- 
servative influence  in  the  business  affairs  of 
this  country.  The  presence  of  a  great  power, 
having  potential  relations  to  production  or 
commerce,  has  been  and  still  is  regarded  by 
many  persons  as  a  menace,  irrespective  of  the 
fact  that  it  may  have  shown  on  all  occasions 
only  friendly  and  beneficent  purposes.  The 
trust  has  a  strictly  business  mission,  and  its 
cumulative  strength  has  always  been  protect- 
ively employed.  The  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany, at  one  time  and  another,  has  been  the 
subject  of  a  good  deal  of  unmerited  criticism. 
This  has  not  prevented  it  from  pursuing  its 
business  in  a  reputable  manner,  and  by  a  skil- 
ful and  systematic  attention  to  economical 
science,  as  applied  to  transportation  and  the 
refining  of  crude  oil,  it  has  been  able  to  accu- 
mulate a  vast  property  and  at  the  same  time 
to  render  to  the  entire  world  an  incalculable 
benefit.  The  writer  can  well  remember  the 
time  when  a  very  poor  article  of  illuminating 
petroleum  was  sold  at  retail  for  two  dollars  a 


TRUSTS.  93 

<j^allon.  This  was  dark  in  color,  and  produced 
an  indifferent  light  and  a  very  disagreeable 
odor.  A  highly  refined  oil,  clear  as  spring 
water  and  as  free  from  odor,  non-explosive 
and  producing  a  beautiful  light,  is  now 
retailed  in  all  markets  at  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  cents  a  gallon. 

Stop  a  moment  to  consider  the  immense 
significance  to  the  race  of  this  better  and 
cheaper  oil,  which  through  the  imi)roved 
methods  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  is  now 
everywhere  sold.  It  is  only  in  towns  of  con- 
siderable size  that  either  gas  or  electricity  is 
used  for  illuminating  purposes  ;  elsewhere 
kerosene  is  the  best  and  [)ractically  the  only 
light  available,  to  either  rich  or  poor.  Dark- 
ness has  always  typified  wretchedness  and  vice, 
and  under  its  shadow  misery  is  most  frequently 
suffered  and  four-fifths  of  all  crime  committed. 
The  kerosene  lamj),  with  its  genial  warmth 
and  cheerful  glow,  has  been  "an  angel  of 
light"  to  many  households.  "Sorrow^  endur- 
eth  for  a  night,  but  joy  cometh  in  the  morn- 
ing," said  the  sacred  writer.  That  wdiich  dis- 
pels darkness  is  a  boon  to  all  ;  it  affords 
increased  oj)portunity  for  culture  and  thereby 
gives  to  civilization  a  faster  and  stronger 
impulse.      This  "trust,"  as  it  is  disparagingly 


94  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

called,  no  doubt  i)rimarily  regarded  its  own 
advantage,  but  incidentally  it  has  rendered  a 
service  to  mankind  which  should  be  remem- 
bered to  the  honor  of  those  who  have  given 
direction  to  its  affairs.  It  will  be  admitted 
that  the  profits  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
have  been  large  ;  this  grows  out  of  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  business  transacted  and  does 
not  import  that  an  unreasonable  tribute  has 
been  exacted  on  account  of  the  monopoly  it 
controls.  Its  army  of  employes  has  been 
fairly  compensated  and  contented  ;  it  has  had 
no  strikes  to  interrupt  the  even  course  of  a  busi- 
ness that  extends  to  almost  every  town  in  both 
Europe  and  America.  Attention  is  called  to 
this  particular  trust  because  of  the  magnitude 
of  its  operations  and  for  the  further  reason 
that  the  nature  of  its  business  has  made  it 
best  known  to  the  public.  One  seeks  in  vain 
for  the  evidences  of  any  wrong  which  this 
trust  has  done  to  any  public  or  private  inter- 
est. The  stamping  out  of  competition,  the 
writer  has  endeavored  to  show,  is  no  detri- 
ment to  the  general  good. 

The  sugar  and  whiskey  trusts  have  obeyed 
the  laws  and  faithfully  performed  all  duties 
with  which  they  are  charged  by  the  state  or 
society;  without  noise  and  without  any  infrac- 


TRUSTS.  95 

tion  of  the  public  peace  they  have  ^one  their 
several  ways,  so  regulating  supply  to  demand 
as  to  preserve  normal  conditions  and  to  give 
healthy  action  to  trade.  In  the  aggregate 
several  thousand  persons  are  employed  by 
these  two  trusts,  and  so  far  as  the  i)ublic  is 
informed  there  are  no  complaints  of  unrea- 
sonable hours  or  inadequate  compensation. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  "walking  delegate"  has 
never  found  distilleries  and  the  great  sugar 
refineries  a  profitable  field  of  operation. 
While  competition  in  the  manufacture  of 
whiskey  and  the  refining  of  sugar  has  practi- 
cally ceased  to  exist,  the  cost  of  these  articles 
to-day  in  the  markets  shows  that  there  is  no 
extortion  on  the  part  of  the  trusts.  The 
American  public  has  never  had  better  nor 
cheaper  sugar  than  it  has  since  the  business 
went  into  the  hands  of  the  trust. 

Fire  insurance  is  often  referred  to  as  a  trust. 
While  this  is  not  true  in  a  strict,  technical 
sense,  its  plan  of  regulating  competition  com- 
prehends all  of  the  essential  features  of  a 
trust,  and  one  may  be  justified  in  considering 
it  in  that  relation.  Why  this  particular  busi- 
ness should  have  become  an  object  of  i)ublic 
distrust  it  is  difficult  to  conceive.  Certain  it 
is  that  no  other  important  business  that  has 


g6  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

continued  in  substantially  the  same  form  for 
more  than  a  century  has  rendered  so  much 
to  the  public  and  reserved  so  little  for  itself. 
The  record  of  the  fire  insurer  as  a  money- 
maker is  not  a  brilliant  one.  Going  back  as 
far  as  statistics  afford  any  reliable  data,  it  is 
found  that  the  average  profits  on  this  class 
of  underwriting  have  been  a  good  deal  below 
two  per  cent,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  much 
doubt  whether  any  actual  profit  has  been 
realized  when  the  computation  reaches  back 
to  include  the  earlier  ventures.  Without 
the  confidence  and  support  which  the  fire 
policy  gives,  the  undertakings  of  the  mer- 
chant and  manufacturer  would  shrink  to  one- 
half  their  present  proportions ;  in  many 
industrial  enterprises  and  in  many  depart- 
ments of  trade  credit  having  lost  its  basis 
would  be  withdrawn.  The  immense  capital 
invested  in  this  business,  at  almost  a  nominal 
profit,  is  a  friendly  shield,  protecting  homes, 
industries,  and  comrnerce.  To  take  it  away 
under  ordinary  circumstances  would  be  a 
greater  calamity  to  the  country's  material 
interest  than  pestilence  or  war.  The  narrow 
margin,  as  shown  in  an  average  year, 
between  gain  and  loss  w^ould  quickly  disap- 
pear ;  it  did  many  times  disappear  under  the 


TRUSTS. 


97 


effects  of  unwise  and  disastrous  competition. 
A  union  was  formed,  having  power  to  pre- 
scribe rules  for  the  government  of  the  busi- 
ness, to  establish  and  maintain  adequate  rates. 
This  has  been  in  existence  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  yet  with  all  its 
monopolistic  power  rates  have  not  been  made 
oppressive, —  in  fact  they  have  been  below 
rather  than  above  the  needs  of  the  business, 
and  insurance  capital  has  suffered  much  in 
consequence.  Had  there  been  no  trust  or 
combination,  with  its  conservative  guidance 
and  protecting  legislation,  many  millions  of 
capital  thus  invested  would  have  been  dissi- 
pated. With  this  loss  the  quality  of  the 
underwriter's  promise  to  the  policy  holder 
would  have  been  impaired,  and  in  this  way 
doubt  and  uncertainty  would  have  become  an 
element  in  a  business  where,  from  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  absolute  verity  is 
demanded.  There  is  capital  invested  in  fire 
insurance  to  more  than  $100,000,000  in  the 
United  States ;  its  agencies  are  found  at 
every  center  of  trade,  from  ocean  to  ocean. 
With  a  very  large  number  of  employes  and 
an  annual  revenue  amounting  to  many 
millions,  there  has  come  to  exist  through  the 
agency  of  this  trust  and  its  method  and  dis- 
7 


98  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

cipline  of  intelligent  management  a  concur- 
rent and  uniform  action  of  all  these  forces. 
There  is  here  but  little  discontent,  no  suffer- 
ing, no  disorder. 

Some  of  the  trusts  that  are  controlling 
important  business  interests  have  now  been 
examined,  and  it  is  found  in  each  instance 
that  in  serving  themselves  they  have  also 
served  the  public ;  and  the  conclusion  is 
irresistible  that  this  same  principle  of  conser- 
vation is  applicable  to  nearly  all  branches  of 
manufacturing  and  may  be  extended  by 
judicious  action  so  as  to  practically  get  rid  of 
all  the  labor  trouble  that  grows  out  of  unwise 
competition.  This  done,  and  with  a  rigid 
enforcement  of  proper  immigration  laws, 
American  labor  will  rejoice  in  its  opportuni- 
ties of  intellectual  growth,  with  increased 
physical  comfort  and  rest.  It  will  of  course 
be  in  vain  to  restrict  immigration  and  regu- 
late domestic  competition,  unless  there  is  also 
protection  from  the  competition  of  the  labor 
of  foreign  countries.  Beyond  keeping  out 
the  surplus  labor  of  other  countries  and  the 
surplus  product  of  their  factories,  there  is  but 
little  that  legislation  can  do  to  beneficially 
change  the  situation  in  which  Americans  are 
now  placed.     Something  more  no  doubt  can 


THE   BENEFICENCE  OF  RICHES.  99 

be  done  in  the  way  of  internal  improvement, 
chiefly  by  local  and  municipal  governments. 
In  the  country  are  needed  better  roads,  in 
cities  better  paved  streets,  improved  draina.<4:e 
and  water  supply.  Public  spirited  and  phil- 
anthropically  disposed  persons  can  do  much 
by  agitating  such  needed  changes  as  will  give 
employment  to  idle  hands,  until  such  read- 
justment of  industrial  affairs  can  be  made  as 
will  afford  permanent  relief. 

THE  BENEFICENCE  OF  RICHES. 

Under  all  systems  of  government,  and 
particularly  under  those  which  are  republican 
in  form,  the  best  interests  of  the  state  are 
found  in  building  and  establishing  on  a  sub- 
stantial basis  a  large  and  influential  "  middle 
class."  As  society  is  now  organized,  with 
the  inequitable  relations  of  labor  to  capital 
and  to  the  productive  mechanical  energies  it 
employs,  the  inexorable  result  is  to  make  the 
rich  richer  and  the  poor  poorer.  The  ex- 
tremes of  society  are  gradually  being  carried 
farther  apart,  and  the  middle  class  is  thus 
put  in  i)eril  of  extinction;  yielding  to  the  dis- 
integrating forces  that  are  already  set  in 
vigorous  operation,  it  will  inevitably  crumble 


100  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

into    pieces    and     its     parts     be    ultimately 
absorbed  by  one  extreme  or  the  other.     To 
devise  means  to  check  this  tendency  is  among 
the  most  important  duties  of  the  statesman. 
Government  cannot  have  a  more  useful  func- 
tion than  that  of  adjusting  relations  between 
classes    of    citizens,    so    that    order    will    be 
secured    and     the    highest     welfare     of    all 
advanced.     The  state  will  be  stable,  prosper- 
ous, and  permanent,  when  it  is  made  homo- 
geneous   and     sustained     by    the     sympathy, 
interest,     and    intelligence     of    its     subjects. 
This   cannot   and   does   not   result  when  one 
portion  of  its  citizens  are  indulging  in  super- 
fluous   wealth    and    another    and    much    the 
larger  portion  are  suffering  from  want  of  the 
most  common  necessities.    And  while  matters 
are  thus  disposed,  it  may  be  accepted  as  a  fair 
conclusion    that    some    new   adjustment    has 
become  necessary  in  the  relations  now  exist- 
ing, and  until  this  is  done,  government  is  not 
being     administered    on     absolutely     correct 
economic  principles  nor  for  the  best  good  of 
the   governed.     In   fixing   the   terms   of    this 
readjustment  there  is  a  delicate  as  w^ell  as  a 
difficult   task   to  be  performed,  for  the  poor 
and  unfortunate  are  not  alone  to  be  consid- 
ered ;  wealth  is  not   a  crime  to  be  punished 


THE  BENEFICENCE  OF  RICHES.  lOI 

with  burdensome  laws  and  the  confiscation  of 
property.  If  to  have  impHes  the  power  to 
get,  it  also  implies  judgment  in  using  and  the 
capability  of  saving.  "Economy  is  wealth," 
and  economy  is  meritorious,  something  to  be 
encouraged  and  given  a  high  place  of  honor 
among  the  national  virtues.  Whatever  new 
departure  may  be  taken  in  social  and  in- 
dustrial life,  the  rich  man  will  not  be  "turned 
down."  He  is  here  to  stay,  and  will  be  an 
indispensable  part  of  any  successful  move- 
ment to  elevate  the  condition  of  the  poor. 
If  it  were  possible  for  him  to  withdraw,  leav- 
ing his  accumulated  wealth  but  taking  all 
else, —  his  eminent  sense,  experience,  habits 
of  economy  and  thrift,  the  poor  would  be 
bereft  of  their  best  friend  and  might  well  lose 
hope ;  to  them  self-government  would  be 
impossible,  law  would  withdraw  its  protecting 
arm,  leaving  anarchy  and  barbarism  to  com- 
plete the  picture  of  misery,  desolation,  and 
ruin.  While  those  who  are  poor  and  are 
kept  to  their  daily  task  by  their  daily 
needs  frequently  suffer  an  injustice  in  not 
receiving  the  full  wage  they  earn,  it  cannot 
be  truthfully  denied  that  the  millionaire  who 
lives  in  a  palatial  home  on  the  other  street  is 
their  friend  and  helper.      His  money  protects 


102  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

them  in  their  liberties  and  creates  for  their 
comfort  and  pleasure  a  thousand  useful  and 
beautiful  things  that  would  otherwise  be 
impossible. 

There  are  grateful  recollections  of  many 
wealthy  persons  whose  generous  gifts,  wisely 
bestowed,  have  contributed  to  the  happiness 
and  culture  of  their  fellow  men.  When  one 
considers  the  value  of  high  resolve  and  of  a 
good  impulse  continued  to  the  ultimate,  he  is 
bewildered  in  contemplating  the  possibilities 
involved  in  the  benefactions  of  these  persons 
for  their  great  libraries,  schools,  and  museums. 
Each  of  these  men  was  once  poor,  and  by 
careful  regard  to  rules  of  conduct,  which 
everybody  understands,  became  wealthy.  Not 
one  of  them  wasted  his  time  or  his  money  ; 
they  were  prudent  and  industrious,  and  found 
all  the  success  they  could  have  possibly 
desired  in  following  the  straight  and  narrow 
way  of  honorable  purpose  and  unflagging 
endeavor.  Men  who  win  money  in  this  way 
do  not  often  need  to  be  told  how  they  shall 
spend  it.  They  recognize  the  fact  that  wealth 
is  a  trust  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  their 
fellows,  and  that  this  can  best  be  performed 
by  applying  their  accumulations  for  some  one 
particular   purpose.     In  this  way  an  effect  is 


STATE  EMPLOYMENT.  I03 

produced  that  becomes  permanent  and  secures 
the  contributory  aid  of  correlated  forces. 


THE  STATE  TO  FURNISH  EMPLOYMENT. 

In  this  discussion  there  can  be  no  reference 
to  precedents,  for  the  existing  condition  of 
things  is  anomalous,  proceeding  from  causes 
that  are  entirely  original.  The  principle  that 
frugality  and  industry  lead  to  success  is 
undoubtedly  as  true  as  at  any  former  time, 
but  obviously  it  does  not  apply  when  idleness 
is  enforced.  Right  here  the  state  has  a  duty 
to  perform  ;  so  far  as  it  has  the  power  it 
should  be  exercised  in  starting  into  activity 
all  the  industrial  agencies  of  the  country  that 
now  lie  dormant.  The  state  in  time  of  great 
peril  may  protect  itself  by  the  use  of  extraor- 
dinary powers,  and  why  may  not  these  powers 
be  called  into  activity  in  the  interests  of  peace 
as  well  as  of  war?  There  is  a  class  of  theorists 
who  affirm  that  "the  world  is  governed  too 
much."  This  is  true  only  where  government  is 
unwise.  Within  proper  limitations  the  state 
ought  to  have  a  paternal  care  over  those  who 
are  too  weak  to  care  for  themselves.  A  sys- 
tem of  taxation  that  places  the  burdens  of 
government  .equally  upon  the  strong  and  the 


104  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

weak,  upon  the  rich  and  the  poor,  is  unwise 
and  opposed  to  a  true  public  policy.  Taxa- 
tion should  be  so  adjusted  that  the  load  will 
rest  heaviest  where  it  w\\\  be  felt  the  least. 
The  citizen  struggling  with  poverty  should 
not  be  encumbered  with  additional  weights. 
An  income  tax  meets  these  conditions,  as  it 
demands  contribution  to  maintain  government 
only  from  those  whose  necessary  wants  are 
all  supplied. 

In  the  present  troubled  condition  of  indus- 
trial affairs  there  are  dangers  threatening  the 
state  of  no  ordinary  character,  and  at  any 
moment  some  of  the  questions  here  consid- 
ered may  be  presented  for  solution  in  their 
most  practical  aspects  and  with  an  urgency 
that  will  require  instant  decision.  It  may 
happen  that  the  partial  failure  of  the  crops, 
added  to  the  long  continued  prostration  of 
business,  will  result  in  bringing  into  painful 
prominence  a  million  or  more  of  people  for 
whose  labor  there  is  no  longer  a  demand. 
These  people  will  need  to  be  housed,  fed, 
clothed,  and  warmed,  and  if  unable  to  provide 
these  necessities  for  themselves,  they  must  be 
provided  by  others  ;  otherwise  they  will  be 
driven  to  the  alternative  of  beggary  or  of 
crime,  taxing    benevolence  or   preying   upon 


WEALTH   INEQUITABLY   DISTRTllUTED.  I05 

society.  Layin.u;  aside  all  moral  and  humane 
considerations,  it  will  be  much  easier  and 
more  to  the  advantage  of  the  state  to  furnish 
employment  for  these  idle  hands  than  to  pro- 
vide for  them  as  subjects  of  charity  or  viola- 
tors of  the  law.  The  question  will,  it  is 
feared,  be  soon  presented  whether  support 
shall  be  given  this  idle  population  in  poor 
houses  and  prisons,  in  misery  and  shame  as 
the  consequence  of  disorder  and  violence,  or 
employment  for  the  i)ublic  benefit  in  making 
better  roads  and  streets,  and  in  such  other 
useful  ways  as  will  supply  the  relief  needed 
without  its  being  offered  as  a  gratuity. 

THE    INEQUITABLE    DISTRIBUTION    OF    WEALTH. 

Society  is  so  organized  that  if  it  suffers  in 
part  it  will  also  suffer  in  whole.  That  which 
promotes  the  substantial  interests  of  any  is 
a  general  good.  A  great  writer  has  said, 
"  There  is  not  a  weak  nor  a  cracked  link  in  the 
chain  that  binds  the  first  and  the  last  thing 
together."  Every  person  is  so  bound  to 
others  in  the  complex  affairs  of  life  that  he 
cannot  always  separate  his  own  from  the 
common  weal.  It  is  not  often  that  one  can 
say,    "  This  concerns  only  my  neighbors  ;   it  is 


I06  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

no  affair  of  mine."  When  the  fields  of  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska  are  destroyed  by  the  hot 
winds,  the  price  of  corn  advances  in  Chi- 
cago and  Liverpool.  The  relations  are  such 
that  if  a  single  member  of  the  society  of 
which  he  is  a  part  is  made  to  suffer  a  wrong,  all 
are  in  some  measure  partners  in  the  offense 
as  well  as  co-sufferers  in  the  injury  done. 
The  mechanical  triumphs  of  this  age  have 
added  largely  to  its  aggregate  wealth.  This 
ought  to  be  a  common  boon,  a  matter  for 
universal  congratulation.  With  enlarged 
facilities  which  greatly  multiply  the  powers 
of  production,  new  means  and  opportunities 
of  comfort  and  pleasure  are  afforded  the  race. 
But  while  wealth  and  the  means  of  happiness 
have  been  so  much  increased  as  a  whole,  the 
distribution  has  been  less  general  and  less 
equitable,  more  and  more  in  the  interest  of 
class.  Capital  finds  its  power  and  influence 
extended,  while  the  opportunities  for  labor 
have  been  restricted  to  narrower  and  less 
numerous  channels.  Capital  can  everywhere 
purchase  at  an  advantage  ;  labor  is  every- 
where a  drug  in  the  market,  and  that  which 
is  unskilled  can  only  be  sold  at  starvation 
prices. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  this  discussion  it  was 


THE  DUTY  OF  THE   HOUR.  10/ 

pointed  out  that  this  condition  of  things  is 
unique  and  could  not  have  existed  in  the  same 
form  at  any  previous  time.  There  have,  of 
course,  been  heretofore  many  periods  of  great 
distress  to  the  poor,  resulting  from  a  variety 
of  causes,  prominent  among  which  have  been 
bad  government,  wars,  and  a  general  want  of 
enlightenment.  Here,  the  onl}^  curse  is  a 
blessing  ;  the  greater  good  to  all,  under  the 
conditions  now  present,  operates  as  a  class 
evil.  There  are  now  no  destructive  agencies  at 
work  ;  i)eace  is  unbroken,  government  protect- 
ive, and  education  general.  Out  of  the 
heart  of  all  this  good  comes  an  unmixed  evil  ; 
out  of  an  abundance  never  before  known 
comes  destitution  and  distress.  Heretofore 
labor  has  suffered  from  causes  that  were  only 
the  temporary  accidents  of  crop  failure  or  dis- 
turbed financial  conditions  ;  now  there  is  a 
cause  which  comes  with  a  new  order,  one  that 
is  wedded  to  the  future,  the  promise  of  a 
great  hoj)e  and  as  permanent  as  societ}-  itself. 

THE  DUTY  OF   THE  HOUR. 

The  people  of  this  country  are  now  enter- 
ing upon  a  new  era,  and  it  should  be  a  better 
one.      This  will  depend  wholly  upon  the  wis- 


I08  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

dom  with  which  they  adapt  themselves  to 
the  changed  conditions.  There  exist  all  the 
elements  of  greatness  and  prosperity  ;  if  these 
are  saved  from  waste  and  wisely  employed, 
the  future  will  be  full  of  the  happiness  of  this 
people  and  of  the  glory  of  their  institutions. 
If  they  neglect  the  opportunities  now  pre- 
sented to  them  and  use  their  strength  in  pull- 
ing down  instead  of  building  up,  the  coming 
years  will  be  full  of  shame,  misery,  and  civil 
strife.  If  ignorant,  hungry,  and  degraded 
men  possess  the  power  of  government,  in  their 
triumph  they  will  make  it  a  tyranny,  and 
when  reactionary  passion  succeeds,  that  which 
they  have  erected  in  madness  and  folly  will 
be  torn  down  in  fire  and  blood.  It  is  better 
for  them  to-day  and  better,  far  better  for 
their  children,  who  may  have  chiefly  to  deal 
with  this  matter,  that  the  schools  and  the 
workshops  should  be  kept  full,  that  the  pris- 
o'ns  and  poor  houses  be  empty.  Men  of 
healthy  minds  and  healthy  morals,  patriots  and 
vigorous,  robust  Christians  should  not  neglect 
or  desert  their  country  on  the  day  when  ballots 
instead  of  bullets  may  decide  as  to  its  protect- 
ive and  permanent  character.  Government 
should  be  made  honest  and  strong.  In  an 
emergency  like  the  present  its  influence  and 


THE   DUTY  OF  THE    HOUR.  109 

power  should  be  directed  to  the  reHef  of  indi- 
gent laborers.  Something  to  do  may  always  be 
found,  if  it  be  only  to  level  down  the  moun- 
tains and  fill  up  the  sea.  When  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  starvation  and  ignorance  for  the 
citizen,  then  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government 
to  provide  work  for  willing  hands  and  educa- 
tion for  all.  Those  who  will  not  work  should 
not  eat.  No  person  should  be  compelled  to 
wait  for  an  opportunity  to  earn  his  bread,  and 
this  opportunity  afforded,  no  person  should  be 
permitted  to  beg.  The  proper  functions  of 
government  must  frequently  be  determined 
by  circumstances  ;  it  may  become  paternal 
when,  acting  in  such  character,  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  governed  will  be  promoted.  The 
wealth  of  the  United  States  is  enormous.  This 
should  be  jealously  protected.  Life,  liberty, 
and  property  are  all  sacred  rights,  but  under 
a  judicious  system  of  taxation  for  the  purpose 
of  internal  improvements  the  value  of  prop- 
erty may  be  largely  increased  and  at  the  same 
time  made  more  secure.  Roads  may  be 
built,  canals  dug,  irrigation  provided  for  vast 
regions  of  fertile  but  arid  soils  ;  and  it  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment is  the  owner  of  incalculable  wealth  of 
precious   ores  deposited  in  its  long  mountain 


no  SOCIAL  ClROWTIl   AND   STABILITY. 

ranges.  The  undeveloped  resources  of  this 
nation  defy  comi)utation  and  its  ability  to 
profitably  employ  labor  is  almost  inconceiva- 
ble. The  men  who  stand  idle  in  the  market 
to-day  fasting,  or  eating  bread  they  have  not 
earned,  might  be  thus  employed  in  a  manner 
that  would  save  themselves  and  their  families 
from  want,  and  at  the  same  time  contribute  to 
the  public  good. 

THE  BUILDING  OF  A  STATE. 

Society  has  been  of  slow  growth  ;  it  is  the 
accretion  or  cumulative  result  of  an  infinite 
number  of  causes  and  effects.  Thousands  of 
years  have  intervened  between  the  organiza- 
tion of  rude,  primitive  societies  and  that 
complex  social  order  which  to-day  secures  so 
much  of  rest  and  comfort,  and  which 
promises  so  much  for  the  future  in  the  pro- 
tection of  personal  rights,  the  expansion  of 
opportunities,  and  the  encouragement  of 
every  worthy  ambition.  The  processes  of 
growth  and  development  have  been  at  work 
persistently,  elevating  man  from  the  lowest 
conditions  of  animalism  and  ignorance,  from 
conditions  where  the  normal  action  was  unre- 
mitting strife  in  supplying  even  the  simplest 


■mi:  r.riiDiNt;  ov  a  statk.  im 

wants  of  |)riniiti\('  life,  until  lie  lias  attained 
an  elevation  and  serenity  of  life  that  his 
remote  ancestors  never  aspired  to  or  even 
deemed  possible.  But  the  end  is  not  yet 
reached.  The  pathway  of  i)ro<j^ress  is  one  of 
(litTicully  ;  there  are  other  hei.i^hts  to  climb, 
other  obstacles  to  be  overcome.  The  subju- 
gation of  matter  to  mind  and  spirit  has  only 
been  accomplished  in  part  ;  its  obdurate 
forces  yield  but  slowly  to  the  dominion  of 
intellect. 

Working  in  the  dawn  of  the  new  day  man 
often  contended  against  physical  laws  which 
are  now  harnessed  to  the  car  of  progress,  in 
which  he  is  carried  from  one  triumph  to 
another.  Confidence  grows  with  success,  and 
man  rises  with  its  wings  to  loftier  flights  than 
any  to  which  the  race  has  heretofore 
ventured.  The  position  which  he  now 
occupies  is  one  of  advantage.  The  processes 
of  emancij)ation  and  de\elopment  are  no 
longer  hedged  about  by  many  of  the  difficul- 
ties which  his  fathers  encountered ;  each 
succeeding  generation  has  found  j)lanes  of 
greater  freedom  and  better  opportunity. 
Every  trium])h  over  matter  and  brute  force 
has  brought  new  j^owers,  additional  cai)abili- 
ties,  and  larger  as})iration  to  stimulate  effort, 


112  SOCIAL  CROWTII   AND   STABILITY. 

This  effort  has  again  continually  gone  forth, 
augmented    and    reinforced    to   contend    for 
other    conquests   and    to    build    up    for   him 
other  hopes  and  vaster  achievements.     Much 
of  that   which   he  does   to-day  with   ease  was 
impossible  to  former  generations.       But  the 
privileges    of    use    and    the    capabilities    of 
action   he  now  enjoys  bring  new  duties  and 
increased  responsibility.     These  he  will  not  be 
permitted  to  compute  and  measure  in  refer- 
ence to  the  conditions  and  circumstances  of 
the  ages  that  have  preceded  him.     There  is 
still  much  ignorance  and  degradation.     With 
these    disagreeable    and    almost    threatening 
facts  he  stands  face  to  face,  and  he  will  be 
recreant    to    his   duty   and    faithless    to    the 
opportunities  now  presented,  if  he  fails  to  act 
with  his  greatest  diligence  and  best  wisdom 
in  relation  to  those  who  are  to  succeed  him 
as    citizens,    and    who    are    to    become    the 
builders  of  a  form  of  society  that  will  be  the 
good  or  ill  of   future  generations.     He  may 
do  much  to  lessen  the  power  of  evil   and  to 
strengthen    and    give    accelerated     force    to 
vitalizing  and  reformatory  influences.     There 
is   no  way  disclosed   as  to  how  this  can    be 
done  more  effectively  than  by  a  painstaking 
and   practical   education   of    the  young.     To 


Till-.    lU'lI.DINC;   DF   A   STATE.  II3 

do  this  is  not  only  a  duty  all  owe  to  the  chil- 
dren of  this  generation,  but  it  is  a  duty  also 
that  they  owe  to  all  coming  times.  For  the 
children  of  this  age  will  be  the  fathers  and 
mothers  of  the  next,  and  the  impulses  started 
for  their  enlightenment  will  go  forward 
through  countless  lives,  and  millions  yet 
unborn  will  be  benefited  through  wisely 
established  provisions  for  their  instruction. 

The  men  of  to-day  are  not  only  a  link  in 
the  chain  that  connects  the  past  and  the 
future,  they  are  also  the  stepping  stone  on 
which  that  future  may  rise  to  its  highest 
ideals  of  greatness,  or  possibly  the  drag  that 
will  hold  it  back.  It  is  imj)Ossible  to  avoid 
the  responsibilit}'  of  their  position,  and  if  it 
were  otherwise,  could  they  be  indifferent  and 
unmoved  by  the  cry  of  infant  humanity  that 
comes  up  to  them  from  the  hovels  and  the 
dark  alleys  of  great  cities,  this  wail  for  pity, 
this  terrified  voice  of  children  crying  out  of 
darkness, —  aye,  even  out  of  the  unreached 
future, —  asking  in  timid,  plaintive  tones  for 
their  protecting  care  ?  The  realization  of 
this  important  fact  should  inspire  an  effort 
that  would  bring  forth  their  best  energies  ;  it 
should  av/aken  motives  for  action  that  would 
make  duty  easier,  and  bear  a  nobler  fruitage 
8 


114  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

for  those  who  are  to  take  their  places  as 
citizens  and  members  of  society.  The  build- 
ing of  a  state,  like  the  building  of  a  ship, 
calls  for  honest  work ;  if  the  material  is 
defective  or  the  construction  bad,  both  will 
break  in  pieces  when  the  storm  arises. 
Nothing  will  permanently  endure  that  has 
within  it  the  principle  of  decay ;  strength  will 
never  be  secured  by  combining  the  elements 
of  weakness.  When  a  lad,  the  writer  was 
accustomed  to  stand  in  the  farm-house  door 
and  admire  a  large  oak  that  stood  alone  on 
the  open  prairie  a  few  hundred  feet  away. 
One  night  a  heavy  wind  swept  over  the 
fields,  and  when  he  arose  in  the  morning  the 
old  oak  no  longer  stood  against  the  sky.  He 
was  surprised  and  sorrowful,  for  the  family 
had  often  gathered  in  its  shade.  Out  of 
their  pride  of  place  and  ownership  there  had 
grown  up  a  confidence  that  this  old  tree 
could  successfully  wrestle  with  any  wind  that 
blew.  An  investigation  disclosed  that  it  was 
not  what  it  had  always  appeared, —  in  fact, 
that  it  was  rotten  at  t/ic  heart.  Thus  it  fre- 
quentlv  hajjpens  that  persons  and  institutions 
that  are  confidently  expected  to  succeed,  fail, 
and  subsequent  inquiry  discloses  that  they 
failed  because  they  did  not  deserve  to  succeed. 


CHARACTER   A  SOCIAL  FACTOR.  I15 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  consider  in  the 
further  development  of  this  subject  the  pro- 
cesses of  growth  and  the  means  by  which 
individual  characters  are  built  u}),  as  the 
individual  is  the  unit  of  both  society  and 
the  state. 


CHARACTER    AS    A    SOCIAL    FACTOR. 

Some  of  the  principal  agencies  in 
character  building  will  now  be  examined. 
Among  them  will  be  found  many  that  are 
uncertain  and  obscure,  making  progress  slow 
and  difficult.  There  will  be  noticed  only 
such  effects  as  arise  from  ascertainable 
causes. 

Genius  does  not  belong  to  this  class ;  it 
comes  as  an  original  force  and  without 
anterior  relations.  Genius  shines  by  its  own 
light,  is  governed  by  no  rules,  and  is  subject 
to  no  law.  The  man  of  genius  is  a  child  of 
destiny,  and  while  he  often  appears  as  less 
than  human,  he  is  able  to  reach  up  as  by 
divine  appointment.  He  takes  hold  of  the 
infinite.  The  number  of  persons  who  are 
thus  endowed  is  so  few,  and  the  standards  by 
which  they  must  be  measured  are  so  differ- 
ent, that    it    becomes  necessary    to   consider 


Il6  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

them  apart  from  others  in  the  appHcation 
of  rules  and  [)rincii)les  relating  to  devel- 
opment and  growth.  Most  lives  have  their 
inspiration  without  that  mysterious  elevation 
of  thought,  that  stirring  of  "deep  soul  knowl- 
edge;" they  never  rise  above  the  plane  of 
the  most  common-place  usefulness.  It  is 
proi^osed,  in  stimulating  inquiry  in  reference 
to  some  of  these  important  agencies,  to  pro- 
ceed in  a  direction  where,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  but  little  can  be  definitely  know^n. 
It  will  be  a  very  interesting  but  difficult  task 
to  analyze  conduct,  to  set  acts  to  motives, 
and  to  look  dowm  into  subjective  minds  and 
discover  the  under-moving  impulses  of  the 
great  men  who  have  impressed  their  charac- 
ters upon  the  world,  and  it  will  be  fortunate 
if  the  effort  brings  forth  some  knowledge  of 
the  hidden  fountains  from  which  flow 
currents  that  carry  to  receptive  minds  inspira- 
tions of  truth  and  wnsdom.  Dr.  Tyndall 
once  said,  "Man's  physical  and  intellectual 
texture  has  been  woven  for  him  ;  he  is  in  fact 
the  child  and  product  of  all  antecedent 
time."  If,  then,  this  be  true  that  man  is 
intellectually  and  morally  related  to  all  that 
is  past  and  to  all  that  is  future,  he  does  not 
begin  and  end  at  those  points  of  time  which 


DISTINCTIVE   NATIONAL  TRAITS.  11/ 

mark  his  personal  identity.  Regarded  in  tlie 
light  of  this  truth,  man  may  be  proj^erly  con- 
sidered as  a  connecting  link  that  holds  one 
eternity  to  the  other.  He  has  proceeded 
from  the  past,  and  the  future  will  proceed 
from  him.  He  is  both  an  effect  and  a  cause, 
—  an  effect  that  is  related  to  every  move- 
ment of  the  past,  and  a  cause  that  will  influ- 
ence and  add  some  special  emphasis  to  every 
movement  of  the  future.  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that  while  man  is  to  the  present  a  reali- 
zation and  fulfillment,  he  stands  to  the  future 
as  a  hope  and  a  prophecy.  Those  who  have 
carefully  studied  the  slow^  but  uniform  and 
persistent  processes  of  human  development 
will  clearly  understand  that  the  civilization  of 
the  present  age  has  grown  out  of  the  bar- 
barisms and  civilizations  of  the  ages  that  are 
past,  and  that  which  now  exists  as  the  best 
product  of  long-sustained  contributive  effort 
would  not  be  essentially  what  it  is,  had  it  not 
been  for  that  which  has  gone  before. 

I)ISTINCTI\E    NATIONAL   TRAITS   TO    DISAPPEAR. 

In  nations,  and  more  frecjuently  in  tribes, 
there  may  be  traced  certain  marked  traits  to 
remote  antecedent  causes,  lines  that  are  some- 


Il8  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

times  shown   with  great  distinctness,  though 
crooked  perhaps  and  weakened  as  they  reach 
back  into  the  mists  and  tangled  experience  of 
the  past.      So  numerous,  however,  have  been 
the  changes   affecting   every  form  of  society, 
whether  savage   or  civilized,  that  these  lines 
have   been   subjected  to  many  accidents  and 
modifying  influences  ;  sometimes    they    have 
been  divided,  frequently  broken,  and  occasion- 
ally wholly  lost.     During  the  present  century 
much  has  occurred  to  break  down  the  barriers 
of  race   and    national    exclusion.      Increased 
facilities  for  transportation   have  taken  from 
the   world    the    appalling     largeness  it    once 
possessed.       This    loss     has    been    compen- 
sated by  a  fuller   development  of   the   social 
instinct  and  the  rapid  growth  of  the  altruistic 
feeling.     These  better   promises  of  universal 
fellowship    naturally  grow    out  of    improved 
acquaintance,  and   may  be  regarded,   too,  as 
partly     responsive    to    the    demands  of    out- 
reaching  commercial  interests.     Each  of  these 
causes    has    had    its  mellowing    influence  on 
society  as  a  whole,  bringing  into  closer  and 
more  friendly  relations  peoples  often  widely 
differing   in  their    occupations  and  habits  of 
thought.      In  these  business  and  social  con- 
tacts   they    are     placed    under  circumstances 


DISTINCTIVE   NATIONAL  TRAITS.  II 9 

where  both  a  gain  and  a  loss  frequently 
result.  F^rom  the  nature  of  the  case  there  is 
both  abrasion  and  accretion.  They  lose  inev- 
itably something  of  their  own  peculiarities 
and  gain  just  as  inevitably  something  of  the 
peculiarities  of  others  with  whom  they  are 
brought  into  contact.  Lines  of  difference  are 
in  this  manner  gradually  rubbed  out,  and 
when  remote  localities  are  brought  still  closer 
together  by  reason  of  better  facilities  of  com- 
munication, it  may  not  unreasonably  be  con- 
cluded that  distinctive  national  traits  will 
wholly  disappear.  A  common  humanity, 
having  the  same  interests  to  move  it  and  the 
same  influences  to  mould  it,  will  in  time  come 
to  adopt  common  habits  and  common  ideas  ; 
the  bad  in  all  will  be  slowly  eliminated,  while 
the  good  from  its  inherent  vitality  and  per- 
sistence will  be  preserved  and  incorporated  in 
a  new  and  universal  character.  In  the  evolu- 
tion of  large  societies,  like  nations  and  tribes, 
and  in  the  growth  and  building  of  distinctive 
characters,  the  principal  causes  which  may 
have  contributed  to  develop  the  one  and 
mould  the  other  are  all  found  in  the  environ- 
ment of  each.  It  is  not,  however,  easy  to 
distinguish  the  accidents  and  complex  circum- 
stances out  of  which   individual  life  and  char- 


120  SOCIAL  C.ROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

acter  have  been  evolved.  Besides  being 
ahnost  infinite  in  number  and  variety,  the 
influences  which  affect  the  latter  are  often  go 
subtle  and  delicate  that  their  relation  to 
effects  cannot  be  determined  with  an}'  satis- 
factory precision,  and  they  can  be  dealt  with 
only  through  the  most  liberal  generalizations. 

THE  GENESIS  OF  CHARACTER. 

In  the  red-ripe  fruit  plucked  from  the  trees 
of  an  autumnal  day.  one  is  baffled  in  his 
efforts  to  distinguish  all  the  nameless  and 
numberless  constituent  properties  that  in  the 
chemistry  of  nature  have  assimilated  in  the 
development  of  a  perfect  peach,  a  pear,  or  an 
apple.  The  blushing  and  luscious  fruit  is  a 
mystery  more  profound  than  that  of  the  starry 
heavens,  contemplated  in  every  stage  of  its 
development.  Within  its  rind  are  hidden  an 
indeterminate  number  of  causes  and  effects, 
many  of  w^hich  have  for  indefinite  periods 
been  stealing  silently  through  nature, — some 
masked  in  the  ugly  forms  of  fertilizers,  others 
"shining  in  the  dew  drop  or  dancing  in  the 
sunbeam."  The  man  of  science  comes  for- 
ward with  his  analysis  and  states  that  an 
apple   consists   of    so   many   parts   of    water, 


THE  GENESIS  OF  CHARACTER.  121 

sugar,  acid,  jjectine,  pectose,  soluble  and 
insoluble  minerals.  Science  stops  here,  and 
its  modest  teacher  and  apostle  is  dumb  when 
pressed  to  tell  what  is  further  desired  to  be 
knowm, — how  the  water  and  the  mineral,  the 
sugar  and  the  acid,  the  pectine  and  the  pec- 
tose, are  gathered  from  the  diffused  elements 
of  nature,  and  by  what  principles  of  affinity, 
by  what  laws  of  assimilation  they  have 
been  brought  together  into  forms  of  beauty 
and  usefulness. 

The  fact  here  illustrated  in  vegetable  life 
is  true,  perhaps,  in  a  larger  measure  when 
a{)plied  to  moral  and  intellectual  properties. 
If  it  cannot  be  definitely  determined  what  are 
the  physical  influences  and  circumstances 
necessary  to  the  development  of  an  apple, 
neither  is  it  possible  to  state  what  is  the  gene- 
sis, nor  to  divine  the  processes,  intellectual 
and  moral,  by  which  an  individual  character 
is  formed  out  of  the  chaos  of  material  exist- 
ing in  the  numberless  accidents  of  life.  Influ- 
ences exerted  in  remote  periods  may  have 
been  silently  working  in  the  veins  of  interme- 
diate generations,  and  now  under  some  spe- 
cial stimulant  or  favoring  condition  spring 
forth  in  unexpected  forms  of  action. 

It  is  not  always   possible  to  know  how  the 


122  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

good  and  the  evil,  like  the  wheat  and  the 
tares,  come  to  exist  in  human  natures,  con- 
fusing moral  and  social  relations  and  present- 
ing inconsistencies  of  conduct  that  often 
weaken  energies  in  action,  causing  defeat 
when  success  is  confidently  expected.  The 
responsibility  for  these  warring  contradictions 
and  idiosyncrasies  of  character  may  lie  far 
back  in  the  environments  of  an  ancestry 
which  for  ages  have  been  forgotten,  but  which 
are  now  with  more  or  less  energy  asserting  in 
present  conduct  the  immortality  of  their  own. 
Lessons  learned  along  this  line  of  investiga- 
tion awaken  increased  anxiety  in  respect  to 
the  performance  of  duties  with  which  all  are 
personally  charged.  Every  one  seems  to  be 
placed  under  the  strongest  possible  obligation 
to  act  with  absolute  faith  toward  those  whose 
well-being  must  depend  upon  his  loyalty  to 
the  right,  united  with  zeal  and  intelligence  of 
action.  He  may  himself  suffer  wrong  with 
fortitude  or  stoical  indifference,  while  the  bare 
suggestion  that  he  may  by  thought,  word,  or 
deed  be  limiting  his  children's  opportunities 
for  happiness  and  sealing  their  bondage  to 
error  and  sin,  and  that  the  effect  of  what  he 
does  will   continue  to  influence  their  lives  to 


THE  GENESIS  OF  CHARACTER.  I  23 

the  latest  generations,  is  something  to  startle 
the  moral  sense  and  cause  the  most  reckless 
to  hesitate.  It  is  the  magnitude  of  the  conse- 
quences that  appeals  to  the  imagination,  held 
under  the  dominion  of  reason.  These  lessons 
afford,  too,  an  incentive  to  awaken  every 
sluggish  energy  of  mind  and  soul,  that  the 
best  culture  possible  may  be  secured.  The 
motive  for  well  doing  reaches  out  into  the  far- 
off  future,  to  wdiich  all  are  related  in  the  per- 
petuity of  the  impulses  which  they  start  down 
the  ages,  bearing  blessings  or  curses.  If  the 
hopes  so  much  encumbered  with  mystery  and 
doubt,  in  which  they  have  been  accustomed  to 
indulge,  concerning  another  conscious  exist- 
ence beyond  the  grave  should  fail  them,  they 
may  at  least  be  certain  of  an  immortality  in  the 
manner  here  suggested  ;  they  may  do  some- 
thing that  will  give  to  living  a  nobler  signifi- 
cance, that  will  lessen  its  sorrows,  increase  its 
joys.  If  a  single  life  is  thus  elevated,  beauti- 
fied, and  sweetened,  and  the  good  is  perpetu- 
ated, then  that  which  they  have  that  is 
worthy  of  immortality  is  projected  into  other 
lives  and  will  be  carried  down  the  ages  an 
imperishable  property  of  goodness  ;  and  thus 
they  shall  literally  inherit  the  earth  and  have 


124  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

a  part  in  the  aspirations  and  sympathies  and  in 
the  best  thoughts  and  best  deeds  of  the  just 
and  true  through  all  coming  time. 

A  clear  thinker  and  eloquent  preacher  said 
recently,  "When  I  find  any  one  who  seems 
able  to  be  good  on  work  days,  without  Sunday 
service  and  Sunday  rest,  I  thank  hereditary 
influences,  which  have  transmitted  in  them  so 
faithfully  the  long  results  of  thousands  of  holy 
Sabbath  exercises  and  of  thousands  of  i)ious 
contemplations.  You  men  and  women,  who 
feel  that  you  can  do  without  Sunday  and 
prayer  and  praise,  be  thankful  at  any  rate  that 
your  ancestors  enjoyed  these  things,  and 
passed  the  clear  results  down  unfiltered  to 
your  life." 

CHARACTER    IMMORTAL. 

Said  an  eminent  divine,  in  one  of  those 
sermons  he  was  accustomed  to  preach,  that 
permanently  enrich  the  world's  thought,  that 
will  hasten  the  millennial  morning  and  make  it 
easier  for  men  to  do  right  and  be  noble  a 
thousand  years  hence:  ."In  these  last  days 
of  such  great  and  beautiful  things,  must  we 
lament  that  the  picture  must  be  erased?  No  ; 
because  the  great  end  of  man  is  not  only  to 
see  beauty,  but  after  having  seen  it,  to  live  it. 


CHARACTER   IMMORTAL.  I  25 

The  picture  cannot  be  wholly  erased.  Mem- 
or>'  and  history  are  often  the  endless  life  of  a 
valuable  reality.  Nearly  all  the  great  men  of 
the  world  are  in  their  graves.  We  have  not 
seen  them  nor  heard  them.  But  once  here, 
always  here.  Homer  and  Dante  have  not 
gone  away.  The  harp  of  Sappho  is  still 
sounding.  The  tears  of  Christ  are  still  falling. 
This  greatness  and  beauty  do  not  die.  As 
the  sea  rolls  and  murmurs  in  the  night  and  is 
sublime  even  in  its  shadows,  so  each  great 
event,  dying  in  the  material  fact,  is  caught  up 
by  memory  and  history,  and  lives  on  grandlv 
in  their  perpetual  shadows.  Athens  is  still 
with  us,  for  time  has  only  enveloped  it  in  a 
silvery  mist.  No  book  you  have  read  and 
loved  can  ever  pass  away." 

Men's  lives  are  not  only  the  medium 
through  which  is  passed  the  wisdom,  courage, 
and  virtue  of  all  that  is  behind,  but  they 
should  also  be  distinguished  and  honored  by 
their  assiduity  in  adding  to  these  accumu- 
lated stores  of  knowledge  and  experience. 
Man's  i)ermanent  hold  on  things  has  never 
been  established.  The  biblical  writers 
delighted  most  to  refer  to  him  as  something 
evanescent  ;  he  was  frequently  likened  to  the 
falling  leaf  and  blade  of  grass,  and  it  has  not 


126  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

been  until  these  later  times  that  man  has 
been  seriously  regarded  as  the  most  substan- 
tial manifestation  of  eternal  forces,  a  con- 
course of  vitalized  atoms,  a  sympathetic 
aggregation  of  physical,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual  effects.  Change  marks  all  things, 
from  the  tiny  blade  of  grass  to  the  star  that 
ranges  through  illimitable  space.  Man,  too, 
is  subject  to  this  same  inexorable  law.  The 
individual  disappears.  This  event  is  antici- 
pated and  preparation  made  to  meet  it.  A 
dissipation  of  his  intellectual  and  spiritual 
entities  may  also  result ;  this  may  not  be  so 
important,  if  in  thought  and  deed  he  has 
already  taken  on  immortality  by  stamping 
with  the  impress  of  his  character  the 
thoughts  and  deeds  of  others,  in  such  a  meas- 
ure that  his  life  becomes  incorporated  into 
theirs,  and  thus  a  perpetuity  of  conscious 
existence  secured.  If  his  thoughts  and 
aspirations  become  their  property,  by  relation 
their  consciousness  is  his.  Thus  it  may 
happen  that  man  will  not  depart  from  a 
world  to  which  he  has  become  habituated  by 
long  familiarity  with  its  scenes,  but  continue 
here  to  fill  larger  spaces,  to  live  a  broader, 
nobler,  and  grander  life,  because  of  the 
increased    richness   and    strength    his   moral 


INFLUENCE  OF  CHARACTER  ETERNAL.  12/ 

and   intellectual   character  will    receive   from 
the  processes  of  continuous  accretion. 

THE   INFLUENCE   OF   CHARACTER   ETERNAL. 

While  the  individual  life  is  a  privilege, 
and  even  a  boon  to  its  possessor,  considered 
as  an  element  in  the  happiness  of  others,  as 
an  integral  part  of  the  uplifting  forces  and 
progressive  movements  to  which  reference 
has  been  made,  it  has  an  immeasurable 
importance  to  society  and  the  state.  Every- 
thing in  this  relation  which  contributes  to  the 
well-being  of  the  individual  is  a  public 
benefit.  In  this  estimate  of  value  the  men 
of  to-day  appear  as  something  more  than 
links  in  the  long  chain  of  human  existence  ; 
in  them  the  currents  have  received  increased 
force.  These  will  be  carried  forward,  and  as 
generation  succeeds  generation  will  be  multi- 
plied to  infinity.  All  along  this  slowly  accu- 
mulating stream  of  moral  and  mental 
activity,  other  lives  will  blossom  in  beauty 
and  rise  in  truth  and  grandeur,  because  of 
the  inspirations  that  have  gone  out  to  them 
from  present  majestic  moments, —  moments 
of  exaltation,  of  strong  resolution  and  special 
effort ;   moments  of  labor  and  sweat,  in  which 


128  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

have  been  gained  superlative  triumphs  for 
truth  and  right,  in  which  there  has  been 
transmuted  a  single  instant  of  common  time 
into  eternal  ages  of  joy  and  honor. 

Under  this  theory  of  evolution  character 
in  its  relation  to  psychical  and  spiritual  laws 
becomes  the  most  potent  thing  in  the 
universe.  It  may  properly  be  said  that  it 
is  as  eternal  as  matter  itself.  Its  influence  is 
seen  to  grow  and  to  enter  into  all  the  widen- 
ing channels  of  increasing  life,  and  with  ever 
multiplying  force  is  absorbed  and  reproduced 
in  changing  forms,  until  its  power  has  out- 
reached  the  limit  of  finite  comprehension. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  life  of  such  a 
man  as  Socrates.  His  influence  at  first  was 
certainly  small,  confined  to  his  native  city,  to 
the  people  among  whom  he  lived ;  even 
narrower  yet,  to  those  with  whom  he  came  in 
personal  touch.  In  later  maturity  and  in  old 
age  it  became  more  marked.  After  his 
death  it  was  more  a  positive  force  than  when 
he  lived,  and  with  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion the  circle  has  widened,  until  at  last  the 
teachings  of  this  great  master  have  become 
constituent  in  the  concrete  wisdom  and 
philosophies  of  the  civilized  world.  In 
respect  to  the  influence  which  character  con- 


INFLUENCE  OF  CHARACTER  ETERNAL.  I  29 

trols  it  will  go  without  saying  that  the  differ- 
ence between  the  great  and  the  small  is  only 
a  matter  of  degree.  Daniel  Webster  on  a 
memorable  occasion,  referring  to  the  charac- 
ter and  services  of  two  eminent  persons,  said: 

"They  are  no  more.  They  are  dead.  But 
how  little  is  there  of  the  great  and  good 
which  can  die.  To  their  country  they  yet 
live,  and  live  forever.  They  live  in  all  that 
perpetuates  the  remembrance  of  men  on  earth, 
in  the  recorded  proofs  of  their  own  great 
actions,  in  the  offspring  of  their  intellects,  in 
the  deep  engraved  lines  of  public  gratitude, 
and  in  the  respect  and  homage  of  mankind. 
They  live  in  their  example ;  and  they  live 
emphatically,  and  will  live  in  the  influence 
which  their  lives  and  efforts,  their  principles 
and  opinions  now  exercise  and  will  continue 
to  exercise  on  the  affairs  of  men. 

"A  superior  and  commanding  human  intel- 
lect, a  truly  great  man,  is  not  a  temporary 
flame,  burning  brightly  for  a  while  and  then 
giving  place  to  returning  darkness.  It  is 
more  like  a  glowing  coal,  having  fervent 
heat  as  well  as  radiant  light,  with  power  to 
enkindle  the  common  mass  of  human  mind  ; 
so  that  when  it  glimmers  in  its  own  decay 
and  finally  goes  out  in  death,  no  night  follows  ; 
9 


130  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

it  leaves  the  world  all  light,  all  on  fire,  from 
the  potent  contact  of  its  own  spirit.     Bacon 
died,  but  the  human  understanding,   roused 
by  the   touch   of   his   miraculous   w^and   to   a 
perception   of    the   true   philosophy   and   the 
just  mode  of  inquiring  after  truth,  has  kept 
on    its    course    successfully    and    gloriously. 
Newton  died,  yet  the  courses  of  the  spheres 
are  still  known,  and  they  yet  move  on  by  the 
law^s  which   he   discovered  and   in  the  orbits 
which  he  saw^  and  described  for  them  in  the 
infinity  of  space.     The  tree  which  these  great 
men  assisted  to   plant  will  continue  to  grow, 
although  they  water  and  protect  it  no  longer. 
Its    branches    \\\\\    spread    w^der  and    it  will 
stretch     its    protecting    arms,     broader    and 
higher  as  the   centuries   roll   on,    and   far-off 
ages  wnll  enjoy  the  beneficial   results  of  the 
labor   and   virtue   of    these    men,   wdiich   will 
pass  down  to  them  through  the  literature  and 
the  philosophy,  through  the  wiser  judgments 
and  better  m.oralities  of  intervening  genera- 
tions." 

The  great  personages  w^ho  have  impressed 
their  characters  and  their  thoughts  upon  the 
w^orld  may  be  compared  to  the  large  tribu- 
taries of  a  river;  the  added  tide  of  each,  as 
it  flows  onw^ard  to  the  sea,  forces  wider  apart 


INFLUENCE   OF  CHARACTER   ETERNAL.  I31 

the  banks  and  {perceptibly  increases  the  vol- 
ume of  its  waters.  The  hill-side  sprin^^  and 
meadow  brook  just  as  unmistakably  contribute 
to  swell  the  flood,  but  their  modest  gifts  pass 
unnoticed. 

The  eternal  influence  of  character  is  not 
less  true  of  other  men  than  of  Socrates, 
Newton,  Bacon,  Galileo,  or  Webster.  There 
is  often  seen  a  wide  difference  in  the 
measure  of  the  influence  exerted,  but  who- 
ever is  able  to  exhibit  in  his  life  any  special 
virtue  or  to  declare  any  important  truth 
that  concerns  the  well-being  of  the  race, 
will  contribute  to  the  world's  permanent 
fund  of  truth  and  virtue  ;  and  by  reason  of 
the  impressions  these  truths  may  make  on 
his  contemporaries,  they  will  become  incor- 
porated into  their  lives  and  thence  be  trans- 
mitted through  successive  generations, 
expressing  in  the  character  of  each  the  exact 
net  value  of  the  impulse  given. 

A  writer,  whose  name  unfortunately  is  lost 
forever,  but  who  has  taken  good  care  that  his 
influence  should  not  fall  within  the  limitations 
of  a  single  generation,  has  left  lines  which 
aptly  express  the  immortality  of  thought. 
He  says  ; 


132  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

"  Drop  follows  drop,  and  swells 
With  rain  the  sweeping  river  ; 
Word  follows  word,  and  tells 
A  truth  that  lives  forever. 

Flake  follows  flake,  like  spirits 
Whose  wings  the  winds  dissever  ; 
Thought  follows  thought,  and  lights 
The  realms  of  mind  forever. 

The  drop,  the  flake,  the  beam, 
Teach  us  a  lesson  ever  ; 
The  word,  the  thought,  the  dream, 
Impress  the  soul  forever." 


CHRISTIANITY   AS  A   SOCIAL    FACTOR. 

That  sentiment  of  justice  and  honor  which 
is  to-day  the  basis  of  confidence,  the  support 
and  brace  of  public  and  private  trust,  is  most 
certainly  the  product  of  a  long  course  of 
religious  and  moral  tuitions.  The  supersti- 
tions of  the  remote  past,  though  ugly  and 
absurd  enough  under  the  strong  light  in  which 
they  are  now  seen,  have  nevertheless  per- 
formed an  important  office  in  fitting  mankind 
for  the  reception  of  higher  religious  truths 
and  in  stimulating  the  growth  of  a  class  of 
faculties  whose  chief  functions  have  been  to 
develop  a  character  so  made  up  of  reason 
and  sentiment  as  to  become  the  substantial 
and  enduring  foundation  of  all  true  morality. 
In  the  pride  of  that   liberal  thought  which  so 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SOCIAL   FACTOR.  I  33 

distinguishes  the  present  age, — thought  that 
has  been  tested  by  reason,  the  ultimate 
resource  of  judgment, — there  is  a  pronounced 
tendency  to  regard  with  something  like  con- 
tempt the  superstitions  that  had  so  large  an 
influence  in  the  early  days  of  the  Christian 
church.  While  the  fullest  credit  should  be 
given  to  modern  liberalism,  it  may  be  fairly 
questioned  whether  equitable  estoppel  may 
not  be  pleaded  to  throwing  down  the  ladder 
by  which  man  has  risen  from  the  depths  of 
medieval  darkness  ;  in  other  words,  whether 
it  may  be  justified  in  degrading  the  agencies 
by  which  he  has  advanced  to  positions  of 
advantage.  There  is  in  infancy  a  helpless 
weakness  that  secures  his  respect  and  love. 
The  youth  in  his  immaturity  is  far  less  than 
the  grown  man  in  his  strength  of  years  and 
experience,  yet  the  one  precedes  the  other  in 
the  order  of  natural  development.  Without 
the  weakness  of  the  first  condition  and  the 
verdant  immaturity  of  the  next  the  robust 
faculties  and  fully  developed  powers  of 
ripened  manhood  are  never  attained.  It 
should  not  be  forgotten  how  much  the  present 
is  indebted  to  those  lower  forms  of  religious 
thought  which  often  found  expression  in  rites 
and  practices  in  unpleasant  discord  with  the 


134  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

better  defined  truths  and  more  enlightened 
philosophies  of  to-day.  What  the  world 
would  have  been  had  it  not  been  for  the 
religions  and  the  great  masters  and  teachers 
of  the  past,  it  is  not  easy  to  estimate.  Take 
out  of  civilization  Jesus,  Socrates,  Plato,  and 
Shakespeare,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  that 
there  would  be  a  good  deal  less  of  it,  and 
of   an  incomparably  poorer  quality. 

In  the  great  soul  of  the  Divine  Nazarene 
was  centered  all  the  moral  and  spiritual 
wealth  of  the  ages  that  had  preceded  him. 
That  w^hich  had  existed  before  as  a  diffused 
nebula,  by  the  power  of  his  superlative  genius 
was  organized  into  active  forces  for  good. 
These  were  multiplied  and  vitalized,  then  sent 
forth  masked  in  ten  thousand  different  forms 
on  their  ministries  of  civilization.  With  the 
advent  of  Christianity  is  noted  the  rapid  evo- 
lution of  a  new  and  better  class  of  motives, 
which  became  suddenly  the  mainsprings  of 
human  conduct.  Moral  and  intellectual 
growth  received  a  quickening  spirit  ;  man- 
kind was  touched  with  kinder  and  more  gen- 
erous sympathies,  changing  rude  and  savage 
barbarisms  Into  higher  types  of  manly  cour- 
age, putting  aside  treachery  and  falsehood 
and  exalting  truth  and  honor. 


DIVINE   LOVE   AS  A   SOCIAL   FACTOR. 

There  are  mysteries  which  no  wisdom  can 
explain.  Whether  these  phenomena  be 
classed  as  psychical  or  spiritual,  whether  they 
are  esoteric  or  exoteric,  whether  they  belong 
to  independent  agencies  or  are  a  property  of 
the  "subjective  mind,"  they  represent  in 
respect  to  well-developed  characters  one  of 
the  most  important  formative  agencies. 
Two  persons  may  meet  for  the  first  time.  In 
this  meeting  is  perhaps  involved  a  disclosure 
of  very  pronounced  mutual  sympathies. 
The  strength  of  these  sympathies  is  such  that 
former  ties  and  associations  are  overcome, 
and  other  permanent  relations  are  created. 
Human  life  is  one  long  story  of  this  love,  in 
the  intensity  of  which  it  sometimes  seems 
that  all  other  interests  are  consumed. 
Moved  by  its  inspiration  the  proud  head 
bows  in  glad  submission  to  the  will  of 
another,  or  humility  and  weakness  by  its 
subtle  magic  are  changed  to  dominance  and 
power.  Each  maid  becomes  a  heroine  and 
each  man  a  hero,  whose  knightly  and  chival- 
rous courage  shrinks  from  no  hardship  and 
dares  all   danger.     This   strange   fact,  which 

135 


136  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

relates  to  the  most  common  and  the  least 
understood  of  all  human  experience,  is  not 
introduced  in  this  connection  because  of  its 
influence  upon  character,  however  important 
that  may  be ;  it  is  referred  to  as  a  type  of 
the  love  eternal,  and  to  suggest  a  possible 
illustration  of  that  love  which  in  many 
instances  exists  between  the  soul  of  man  and 
its  Divine  Author. 

Out  of  the  abyssmal  depths  of  the  Infinite 
comes  forth  a  silent  spirit,  which  enters  into 
the  receptive  heart,  carrying  with  it  the 
sweetest  harmonies  and  a  sympathy  so  kind, 
so  full  of  tenderness  and  pity  that  the  hard- 
est lines  of  selfishness  are  softened  and 
moulded  into  characters  conspicuous  for 
their  beauty  and  usefulness.  Following  the 
analogy  before  suggested  there  are  seen 
intimations  of  an  affinity  between  the  spirit 
of  man  and  the  great  soul  of  the  eternal,  and 
out  of  this  mysterious  relationship  arises  the 
phenomena  of  "Christian  experience," 
which  has  been  so  potential  in  developing  a 
civilization  in  which  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  are  the  active  principles  and  chief 
supports.  In  these  raptures  of  the  divine 
love  fires  are  kindled  that  consume  all 
unworthy     motives ;      loftier     purposes     are 


DIVINE  LOVE  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR.  I37 

formed,  characters  are  purified,  and  from 
restrained  desire  and  stimulated  effort  there 
comes  forth  a  moral  heroism,  clothed  with 
power  and  beauty.  To  these  conditions 
belong  the  martyr  and  the  saint.  There  are 
not  many  intelligent,  thoughtful  persons  in 
any  Christian  community,  no  matter  what 
their  theological  opinions  may  be,  who  would 
willingly  lose  from  home  and  daily  life  this 
influence  that  has  increased  happiness  and 
sweetened  existence  for  the  last  nineteen 
hundred  years.  The  carpenter's  son,  sur- 
rounded by  his  untaught  Galilean  fishermen, 
Mahomet  in  his  cave,  and  Shakespeare  shift- 
ing the  scenes  of  his  London  theatre  or  meet- 
ing his  club  at  an  obscure  tavern,  were  organiz- 
ing and  putting  into  action  nioral  and  intellect- 
ual agencies  that  were  to  change  the  lives  and 
characters  of  countless  millions.  Whether 
human  or  divine  or  partly  both,  they  had 
inherited  the  wisdom  of  the  ages  preceding 
them.  At  birth  they  had  the  experience  of  a 
hundred  centuries  hidden  in  their  brains.  In 
doing  that  only  which  was  in  harmony  with 
the  inspirations  that  crowded  their  receptive  ^ 
minds  they  put  in  motion  waves  of  thought 
and  motives  for  action  that  will  pass  on  with 
the  currents  of  life,  sentiment,  and  affection. 


138  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

until  their  energy  is  merged  and  exhausted 
in  larger  and  later  impulses,  which  will  here- 
after arise  from  new  and  independent  causes. 


THE    PHYSICAL    BASIS   OF   CHARACTER. 

In  now  briefly  considering  a  collateral 
branch  of  the  line  of  thought  embraced  in 
this  discussion,  deeper  shadows  will  be 
entered,  where  the  lamp  of  reason  will  cast 
no  illuminating  ray  on  the  uncertain  path. 
If  reference  is  frequently  made  to  well- 
known  writers,  it  will  be  for  the  reason  that 
when  walking  in  doubtful  and  dimly-lighted 
paths,  it  is  preferred  not  to  walk  alone. 

Besides  the  large  and  rapidly  accumulating 
fund  of  moral  and  mental  aptitudes  which 
man  has  received  from  his  ancestors,  and 
which  constitutes  a  safe  capital  on  which  he 
may  base  his  future  ventures,  he  stands  in  a 
stronger  light  and  on  a  better  plane  of 
advantage  for  the  use  of  both  natural  and 
acquired  traits.  It  will  not  be  seriously  dis- 
puted that  the  culture  and  learning  of  the 
parent  often  gives  increased  mental  force  in 
particular  directions,  and  this  is  sometimes  so 
emphasized  as  to  produce  in  the  child  clearly- 
marked  capacities  for  special  thought. 


PHYSICAL  BASIS  OF  CHARACTER.  I  39 

A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Bain,  in  a  work 
showing  a  good  deal  of  careful  thought, 
endeavored  to  exphiin  the  physical  relations 
between  mind  and  body.  Starting  with  the 
alleged  physiological  fact  that  the  human  body 
contains  a  vast  number  of  nerve  corpuscles 
and  nerve  fibres, — about  one  hundred  million 
of  the  former  and  five  hundred  million  of  the 
latter, — he  shows  with  some  obscurity  in  his 
processes  that  a  definite  number  of  these  e.x- 
ceedingly  delicate  structures  are  appropriated 
and  possessed  with  each  fact  or  even  vaguely- 
formed  idea  which  a  person  acquires  ;  that 
the  same  group  of  fibres  and  corpuscles  can- 
not be  used  to  receive  and  retain  different 
facts,  or  facts  of  a  different  class,  at  the  same 
time.  These,  Mr.  Bain  afiirms,  constitute  the 
physical  organs  of  memory,  the  material  basis 
of  all  mental  growth  and  action.  If  this 
theory  be  correct,  does  it  not  follow,  under 
that  principle  of  law  which  makes  utilit}-  both 
paramount  and  fundamental  in  nature,  that 
specific  parts  of  the  brain,  used  for  a  life-time 
to  retain  and  crystallize  specific  facts,  will 
through  the  persistency  of  use  and  adaptation 
undergo  certain  changes  of  structure,  which 
in  the  end  will  become  organic  and  transmis- 
sible from  parent  to  child?     It  would  perhaps 


140  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

be  absurd  to  expect  that  under  the  most  favor- 
able circumstances  the  child  would  have  pre- 
cise and  definite  understanding  of  facts  which 
the  parent  had  known.  The  limitations  of 
reasonable  expectation  would  end  in  aptitude; 
he  would  have  what  Tennyson  expresses  as 
"mystic  gleams."  These  in  marked  cases 
would  perhaps  amount  to  indistinct  and 
shadowy  recollections.  This  appears  to  have 
been  Emerson's  idea.  When  speaking  of 
Shakespeare  he  said,  "What  office,  or  func- 
tion, or  district  of  man's  work  has  he  not 
remembered?" 

Should  one  hesitate  to  go  as  far  as  these 
writers  have  gone,  he  could  stop  with  the 
lesser  proposition  that  the  perceptions  of  the 
child  would  be  quickened  in  respect  to  the 
special  branches  of  learning  in  which  the  par- 
ent had  excelled.  These  questions,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  wdiile  interesting  subjects 
of  speculation,  must  be  left  in  the  same 
obscurity  in  which  they  are  found.  Accurate 
knowledge  is  not  obtainable.  Thought  has 
not  the  properties  of  weight  and  measure- 
ment. It  does  not  follow,  however,  that  it  is 
entirely  without  substance,  or  at  least  w^ithout 
the  power  of  impressing  it.  Sound  is  about 
as  insubstantial  as  anything  concerning  which 


PHYSICAL   BASIS  OF  CHARACTER.  I41 

there  is  definite  information,  and  yet  it  is 
demonstrated  that  the  human  voice  or  the 
tones  of  a  musical  instrument  give  impulses  to 
the  air,  which  in  the  phonograph  find  a  per- 
manent record.  The  brain  is  substance  far 
more  sensitive  to  impressions  than  the  wax  in 
the  phonograph,  and  some  doctor  of  psychics 
may  yet  demonstrate  that  this  organ,  subject 
as  it  is  to  impressions  of  the  most  delicate 
character,  does  in  fact  receive  and  retain  the 
image  of  a  word  or  thought,  giving  it  out 
again  at  will  or  turning  it  over  as  a  heritage 
to  the  next  generation. 

This  undertaking  has  already  been  entered 
upon  with  elaborate  preparation  by  many  of 
the  great  institutions  for  learning.  Professor 
Hugo  Miinsterberg,  writing  in  the  Harvard 
Graduate  Magazine  in  1893,  under  the  caption 
of  "The  New  Psychology,"  said:  "In  the 
series  of  scientific  investigations  now  begun  in 
our  youthful  laboratory  the  question  concern- 
ing elementary  time  measurements  and  sense 
impressions  takes  a  place  far  behind  the  study 
of  the  combination  and  fusing  of  ideas,  of 
processes  of  thought  and  acts  of  speech,  of 
space  and  time,  perceptions  of  memory  and 
attention,  of  feeling  and  will.  A  stroll  through 
the    work    room,   even    outside  of    working 


142  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

hours,  permits  one  to  see  clearly  this  high 
development,  from  a  glance  at  the  apparatus 
stored  in  the  glass  cases.  Four  great  groups 
of  contrivances  can  thereby  be  easily  distin- 
guished. First,  the  apparatus  intended  to 
illustrate  the  relations  between  mind  and  body 
through  representation  of  the  brain,  nerves, 
sense-organs,"  etc. 

THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF    INTUITION. 

What  is  that  mysterious  insight  in  regard  to 
things  unknown  which  we  call  intuition?  We 
"hello"  to  our  friend  across  hundreds  of 
miles  of  waving  grain  or  drifting  snow  and 
our  words  of  greeting  are  quickly  taken  up  by 
unseen  messengers  and  hurried  along  the  still 
pathway  of  nature  to  the  ear  of  him  for  whom 
they  were  spoken  ;  and  so,  too,  there  are 
reverberations  in  the  chambers  of  the  soul  of 
a  knowledge  concerning  which  there  is  no 
sense-perception.  These  intimations  are 
always  vague  and  indistinct.  Is  it  a  legacy 
of  ideas  from  ancestors,  a  resurrection  of 
memories  with  shadowy  form  from  for- 
gotten graves?  There  can  be  no  doubt  but 
that  the  labor  and  study  of  one  generation 
are  rewarded  by  the  quickened  insight  and 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF  INTUITION.  1 43 

keener  mental  perceptions  of  another.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  said  many  years  ago,  "If 
asked  to  what  more  than  anything  else  I 
attribute  my  success  as  a  minister,  I  should 
answer  that  certain  something  which  I  have 
received  from  my  mother,  which  enables  me 
to  see  the  unseeable  and  know  the  unknow- 
able." 

Mr.  Beecher  here  very  clearly  admits  a 
capacity  for  understanding  things,  independ- 
ent of  any  methods  of  study  and  without,  in 
fact,  the  necessity  of  any  particular  mental 
effort.  This  property  of  knowing  without 
first  learning  has  been  recognized  in  various 
ways  for  a  long  time.  It  was  not  so  far  back 
as  to  be  forgotten  by  those  in  middle  life  that 
a  person  was  supposed  to  be  inspired  if  he 
spoke  with  ready  speech  and  showed  any 
extraordinary  apprehension  of  religious  and 
spiritual  truths.  Such  persons  were  not 
infrequently  regarded  as  the  special  subjects 
of  Divine  favor.  As  the  world  comes  for- 
ward into  the  stronger  light  of  civilization, 
there  is  a  rapidly  increasing  tendency  to  find 
natural  causes  for  every  effect,  and  when  a 
proper  cause  cannot  be  ascertained  or  satis- 
factorily demonstrated,  there  is  no  exigency 
in  which   a   serious   reference   to   the   super- 


144  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

natural  will  be  justified.  A  man  who  in  the 
last  century  was  called  divinely  inspired  and 
spoke  with  the  tongue  of  an  angel  would  now 
be  known  onl}^  as  a  man  of  genius.  Volumes 
have  been  written  to  prove  that  William 
Shakespeare  could  not  have  composed  the 
plays  and  other  literary  works  generally 
attributed  to  his  authorship.  His  writings,  it 
is  claimed,  show  a  comprehensive  knowledge 
inconsistent  with  the  very  ordinary  scholar- 
ship of  the  man.  These  writers  have  been 
misled  in  attempting  to  measure  genius  by 
ordinary  standards.  Many  writers  of  great 
learning  and  conservative  thought,  occupy- 
ing high  places  in  the  world  of  letters,  have 
often  referred  to  these  vaguely  defined  and 
faintly  appreciable  agencies  of  mind  or  soul. 
Tennyson  has  written  : 

"Something  there  is,  or  something  seems, 
That  touches  me  with  mystic  gleams, — 
Something  felt, —  like  something  here 
Of  something  done,  I  know  not  where, 
Such  as  no  language  may  declare." 

And  again, 

"Full  oft  my  feelings  make  me  start 
Like  foot-prints  on  some  desert  shore, 
As  if  the  chambers  of  my  heart 
Had  heard  these  shadowy  steps  before," 


THE   PHILOSOPHY  OF  INTUITION.  145 

Those  who  loved  the  grand  old  Quaker 
poet,  who  ministered  so  long  to  the  Ameri- 
can instincts  of  patriotism  and  to  the  pure  in 
literature,  will  remember  his  poem  entitled 
A  Mystery.  He  describes  in  graceful  rhyth- 
mic lines  an  idle  ramble  along  the  bank  of  a 
river  that  wound  among  the  hills  and  moun- 
tains. It  was  the  first  time  he  had  visited  the 
place,  and  yet  he  says  "the  river  wound  as  it 
should  wind,"  and  that  "a  feeling  of  familiar 
things  with  every  footstep  grew;"  then  adds: 

"A  presence,  strange  at  once  and  known, 
Walked  with  me  as  a  guide; 
The  skirts  of  some  forgotten  life 
Trailed  noiseless  at  my  side." 

Goethe,  in  his  Conversations  with  Ecker- 
uiatin,  has  discussed  with  much  freedom  the 
intuitional  power  of  highly  endowed  persons, 
and  he  has  given  his  sanction  to  Ecker- 
mann's  statement  of  his  belief  in  the  correla- 
tive idea  of  soul-recognition.  He  says:  "No 
productiveness  of  the  highest  kind,  no 
remarkable  discovery,  no  great  thought 
which  bears  fruit  and  has  results,  is  in  the 
power  of  any  one ;  but  such  things  are  eleva- 
ted above  all  earthly  control.  Man  must 
consider  them  as  an  unexpected  gift  from 
above,  as  pure  children  of  God." 
10 


146  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

The    poet    Hayne,    in    one    of    his    best 
moments,  wrote  : 

"O  swift,  instinctive,  startling  gleams, 
Of  deep  soul  knowledge." 

The  Duke  of  Argyll,  in  his  Reign  of  Law, 
refers  to  these  unconscious  mental  processes 
in  a  manner  so  indicative  of  personal  convic- 
tion as  to  suggest  that  he  had  given  the  sub- 
ject much  careful  thought.     One  of  his  most 
significant  paragraphs  is  here  quoted:     "The 
human  mind  in  the  exercise  of  its  own  facul- 
ties and   powers,   sometimes   by  careful   and 
labored    reasoning,   sometimes    by    the  pure 
intuitions  of  genius,  is  able  from  time  to  time 
to    reach    now    one,  now    another    of    those 
intellectual  conceptions  which   are  the  basis 
of  all  that  is  intelligible  to  us  in  this  order  of 
the     natural    world.       Especially     have    the 
great    pioneers    in    new    paths    of    discovery 
been  led  to  the  opening  of  those  paths  by  an 
intuitive  sense  of  abstract  truth,  which  is  the 
noblest  gift  of  genius.      Copernicus,   Kepler, 
and  Galileo  were  all  guided  in  their  profound 
interpretation  of  visible  phenomena  by  those 
intuitions,  which  arise  in  minds  finely  organ- 
ized,  brought    into   close   relations   with    the 
mind  of  nature."      "They  guessed  the  truth," 


Till'.   rillLOSOPHY  OF  INTUITION.  1 47 

he  adds,  "before  they  proved  it  to  be  true." 
Emerson  did  not  Hve  to  dream  ;  he  often 
startled  us  with  his  reahsms.  He  saw  all 
things  in  a  pure  white  light  and  of  an  inten- 
sity that  dazzled  the  unaccustomed  eye.  In 
explaining  his  literary  methods,  he,  too,  has 
given  intimations  of  the  same  mysterious 
gifts.  "To-day,"  he  says,  "  I  seek  a  thought, 
but  it  eludes  me ;  to-morrow  it  comes  un- 
asked." 

"  Shakespeare,"  Ben  Jonson  tells  us,  "  was  a 
man  of  little  learning."  His  writings  indicate 
the  widest  range  of  information.  Emerson 
has  said  of  that  property  of  Shakespeare's 
mind  which  enabled  him  to  understand  and 
appropriate  things  belonging  to  the  realms  of 
knowledge  lying  outside  his  reach  :  "  He 
exhaled  thoughts  and  images  ;  what  point  of 
morals,  of  manners,  of  economy,  of  philoso- 
phy, of  religion,  of  taste,  of  the  conduct  of 
life,  has  he  not  settled?"  "  Our  poet's  mask," 
he  adds,  "  was  impenetrable,  and  he  gives  us 
no  clue  to  his  magic  power  of  creating." 

A  writer  in  the  Fortnightly  Rcviczu  has 
given  his  testimony  in  the  following  words  : 
"  Quite  suddenly  a  thought  is  darted  into  the 
mind,  which  cannot  be  traced  back  to  any 
source  in  past  experience.      We  find  a  sensa- 


148  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND   STABIIJTV. 

tion  that  seems  to  take  us  directly  out  of  the 
circle  of  sense-perception."  Leckey,  in  his 
European  Morals,  writes  :  "  Mysticism,  trans- 
cendentalism, inspiration,  and  grace,  are  all 
words  expressing  the  deep-seated  belief  that 
we  possess  fountains  of  knowledge  apart  from 
all  the  acquisitions  of  the  senses  ;  that  there 
are  certain  states  of  mind,  certain  flashes  of 
moral  and  intellectual  illumination,  which 
cannot  be  accounted  for  by  any  play  or  com- 
bination of  our  ordinary  faculties." 

Theosophy,  occultism,  Christian  science, 
and  telepathy  have  many  high-minded  and 
sincere  believers,  and  possibly  all  belong  to 
the  same  class  of  soul  phenomena.  Expo- 
nents of  this  class  of  phenomena  not  infre- 
quently claim  to  act  by  the  direction  of 
unseen  intelligence.  Their  career  is  often  of 
great  interest,  and  their  experiences  suggest 
wonderful  possibilities  in  the  development  and 
use  of  these  extraordinary  gifts.  The  many 
eminent  writers  who  have  declared  their 
belief  in  this  exceptional  power  have  all 
referred  to  it  as  the  privilege  of  certain  ex- 
alted conditions  of  mind  or  soul.  It  may  be 
possible  to  so  direct  one's  life  that  this  inspi- 
rational condition,  or  receptivity,  shall  become 
normal  and  permanent.    That  certain  persons 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF  INTUITION.  1 49 

have  been  able  to  secure  in  the  direction  of 
their  Hves  the  absokite  dominion  of  the  soul 
power  as  is  claimed,  signifies  that  many  oth- 
ers, by  proper  discii^line  and  effort,  may 
accomplish  the  same  thing.  That  exaltation 
of  spirit  and  unerring  intelligence  they  claim 
to  possess  may  be  only  an  extension  or 
enlargement  of  the  same  power  possessed  by 
many  others  to  which  reference  has  been 
made.  It  was  said  by  Winter  :  "  A  great 
character  greatly  successful,  shining  in  its 
righteous  eminence  and  irradiating  a  beauti- 
ful grace,  implies  the  divine  element  and  the 
celestial  future  of  mankind." 

Genius  speaks  and  acts  from  an  inner  con- 
sciousness of  things  ;  it  is  esoteric,  and  if  nat- 
ural is  transmissible  ;  if  good  it  will  survive 
and  grow.  While  to-day  this  power  is  among 
the  exceptional  attributes  of  a  few  superior 
minds,  in  the  near  future  it  may  become  the 
priceless  property  of  the  whole  race.  There 
is  only  a  narrow  border-ground  here  between 
the  human  and  divine,  and  whether  the 
effects  referred  to  belong  to  the  realm  of 
spirit  or  mind  may  be  a  question  which  none 
will  be  able  to  answer.  Neither  does  it  seem 
important  that  it  should  be  definitely  known 
whether  these  extraordinary  powers  proceed 


150  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

from  God,  from  a  lesser  and  independent 
intelligence,  or  reside  among  the  reserve 
forces  of  the  mind  of  man. 


THE    ALTRUISM    OF   THE    FUTURE. 

Love  is  the  essence  of  all  genuine  religion 
and  the  basic  principle  of  all  movements  for 
the  uplifting  of  humanity.  In  the  abstract  it 
is  an  unfruitful  quality  and  is  liable  to  dissi- 
pate in  speculative  inanities, — it  must  have  an 
object.  When  this  is  supplied,  love  prospers. 
Spiritual  love  will  cease  to  be  capricious  in  its 
development,  as  the  complexity  of  social  rela- 
tions increases  and  altruistic  tendencies 
become  more  pronounced  in  social  habits. 
Love  for  one  another  will  become  a  fixed 
hereditary  trait,  the  same  as  parental  love  or 
the  love  of  the  sexes.  The  utility  of  this  sen- 
timent, under  the  accepted  laws  of  evolution, 
in  time  must  cause  it  to  be  produced  with  sta- 
ble uniformity.  New  objects  for  its  devotion 
w\\\  then  be  found  ;  new  ideals  of  saintly  per- 
fection and  moral  grandeur  will  rise  up, 
claiming  and  receiving  the  homage  of  human 
hearts.  Future  generations  will  come  to  the 
altars  of  this  new  worship  with  devout  souls, 
exalted  and  ennobled  under  the  inspiration  of 


THE  ALTRUISM  OF  THE  FUTURE.  15I 

a  love  for  the  good  and  the  beautiful,  and 
they  will  kindle  thereon  fires  that  will  warm 
all  hearts  and  light  the  way  of  those  who  walk 
in  darkness. 

The  biblical  requirement,  "Love  one 
another,"  is  now  fully  met  in  the  family 
relation,  and  that  other  command,  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  relates  to 
sociological  conditions  which  are  certain  of 
being  realized  in  the  future.  Family  inter- 
ests and  obligations  existed  for  a  long  time 
before  societies  composed  of  larger  aggrega- 
tions of  persons  became  necessary.  From 
the  close  association  and  mutual  dependence 
of  the  family  grew  up  common  sympathies. 
These  strengthened  into  affection,  and  so 
influenced  the  intellectual  and  emotional 
character  of  the  individual  that  in  the  pas- 
sage of  generations,  under  the  slow  transfor- 
mation of  heredity,  this  small  aggregation  of 
persons,  who  were  originally  held  together 
by  the  most  fragile  threads  of  accident  or 
convenience,  has  now  become  by  the  strong- 
est bonds  that  nature  can  forge  an  insepara- 
ble unit.  The  organization  of  society  in  its 
general  relations  does  not  imply  the  sanie 
intimacy  of  association  as  that  of  the  family; 
however,    it    has    been   seen   that   there   is   a 


152  SOCIAL  GR(J\\  Til   AiND  STABILITV. 

unity  of  interest  in  society  which,  when 
clearly  understood  by  all,  will  cause  class  and 
race  distinctions  to  disappear.  Each  person 
will  see  the  adv^ancement  of  his  own  welfare 
in  promoting  that  of  all.  From  these  mutual 
interests  will  spring  common  sympathies  and 
affections,  and  the  hope  may  not  be  an 
unreasonable  one  that  in  the  golden  ages  a 
type  of  society  will  be  developed  in  which 
the  average  man  will  love  his  neighbor  as 
himself. 

But  it  may  be  inquired,  why  waste  one's 
time  with  these  concerns  of  the  future  ?  The 
generations  of  to-day  are  grateful  to  their 
progenitors,  who  labored  for  their  good ;  less 
grateful  may  be  those  that  are  to  come  out 
of  the  unknown  and  mysterious  silence. 
Their  babbling  tongues,  in  telling  the  story 
of  past  achievements,  may  make  the  noblest 
heroisms  the  subject  of  their  lightest  jest. 
"Our  mould  will  be  turned  on  the  careless 
plowshare"  to  fertilize  their  fields  and 
increase  their  harvests.  What  matters  it  ? 
Shall  men  refuse  to  pay  to  the  future  a  debt 
they  owe  to  the  past  ?  Tired  hands  and 
tired  brains  have  wrought  for  them,  and  shall 
they  drop  no  seed  by  the  wayside  that  may 
spring  up  and  ri})en  into  harvests,  even  when 


THE   ULTIMATE  DESTRUCTION  OF  EVIL.         I  53 

the  recollection  of  their  li\es  sliall  no  longer 
exist  ?  Society  is  of  slow  growth.  That 
which  one  generation  j)lants  another  may 
reap.  It  was  Newton  who  said  that  when  he 
sought  particular  results  in  any  sjjecial  field 
of  thought,  he  iiitciidcd  his  mind  in  that 
direction.  What  is  sought  for  in  the  way  of 
improved  sociological  conditions  can  be  more 
speedily  accomplished  by  leading  the  general 
thought  to  a  consideration  of  the  purpose 
desired. 


THE   ULTBLVTE   DESTRUCTIOX   OF   EVIL. 

Physical  bodies,  in  all  their  complex  forms 
including  living  organisms,  are  chieflj'  chemi- 
cal effects,  an  aggregation  of  molecules  which 
under  the  operation  of  the  mysterious  law  of 
life  have  been  brought  into  relations  that 
continue  with  uniform  persistency  until  the 
vitalizing  principle  is  withdrawn  ;  then  the 
relationship  is  destroyed  and  separation 
again  takes  i)lace.  Could  one  analyze  the 
body  of  a  healthy  person  in  the  freshness  and 
vigor  of  youth  and  determine  with  precision 
the  proportion  in  which  its  several  constituent 
elements  are  held,  the  possibilit}'  is  suggested 
that    this    same    equilibrium   of    health    and 


154  SOCIAL  (JROWTII   AND   STADILII'V. 

youth  could  be  preserved  through  the 
medium  of  the  blood.  Sickness  or  decay 
would  indicate  that  the  harmony  of  natural 
relations  had  been  disturbed,  that  molecular 
action  had  been  unduly  increased  or  dimin- 
ished, and  that  by  supplying  some  property 
of  which  the  body  had  suffered  deple- 
tion, or  by  reducing  some  excess  which 
had  come  to  exist,  the  required  proportion 
being  re-established  health  and  youth  would 
be  again  restored.  Those  most  skilful  in 
the  use  of  medicine  have  heretofore  been 
compelled  to  content  themselves  wnth  a 
knowledge  almost  wholly  emj^irical.  Science 
is  yet  young ;  it  is,  however,  ambitious  and 
resolute.  To  the  urgency  of  its  demands 
biology  must  ultimately  yield  all  its  secrets. 
When  this  is  done,  disease  will  disappear  and 
the  years  of  man's  life  largely  increased. 
This  of  course  implies  less  suffering  and 
greater  opportunity  for  the  race.  Pain  is 
useful  only  when  it  directs  the  way  to  truth ; 
when  the  truth  is  found,  the  guide  may  be 
dismissed  with  advantage.  Social  disorder  is 
the  result  of  conditions  that  ought  to  and  will 
pass  away ;  animalism  weakens  under  the 
refining  processes  of  civilization.  With  light 
there  is  heat ;    that  which   illumines  the  mind 


rilE    ULTIMATE   DESTRUCTION  Of  EVIL.        I  55 

warms  the  heart.  With  a  higher  wisdom 
and  a  better  comfort  will  come  a  greater  ten- 
derness for  the  unfortunate  and  a  greater 
respect  for  the  rights  of  all.  Probably  five 
persons  out  of  six  are  a  "law  unto  them- 
selves." They  are  guided  by  their  intelli- 
gence and  moral  sense  and  never  wait  to 
ascertain  what  the  statute  requires.  Their 
appeal  is  to  conscience  and  not  to  courts. 
That  social  element  from  which  proceeds  dis- 
order and  crime  is  certainly  becoming 
smaller  and  less  a  menace  to  peace  and 
security.  It  is  not  true  that  "the  good  die 
young;"  statistics  prove  the  contrary.  To 
the  righteous  has  been  promised  length  of 
days.  This  promise  will  not  fail,  for  to  its 
fulfillment  is  pledged  the  power  of  the  moral 
government  of  the  universe ;  besides  it  is 
based  on  law  that  is  fundamental,  and  one 
that  underlies  all  progress.  The  good  men 
are  the  patriarchs  in  every  community.  The 
average  life  of  the  good  man  is  not  only 
longer  than  that  of  the  bad  man,  but  the 
influence  of  the  former  is  much  greater  and 
more  enduring  than  that  of  the  latter. 
Good  is  therefore  making  its  way  with  such 
an  immensely  ])reponderating  force  as  to 
promise  the  ultimate  extirpation  of  evil. 


156  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

The  advance  made  in  respect  to  mechanical 
science,  under  a  wise  and  just  arrangement 
between  capital  and  labor,  will  materially 
lighten  the  hardships  of  the  wage  earners. 
The  increased  facilities  for  production  must 
certainly  shorten  the  hours  of  labor  and 
relieve  much  discomfort  to  many,  who  to 
secure  cheap  rents  are  compelled  to  live  long 
distances  from  the  place  of  their  employment. 
Besides,  the  higher  wages  paid  will  secure 
better  and  more  abundant  food.  A  moral 
and  intellectual  elevation  will  supplement  the 
improved  physical  conditions  of  this  class.  All 
things  seem  to  combine  to  hasten  man  forward 
into  the  green  pastures  of  the  future.  Through 
selfishness  men  learn  to  become  unselfish. 
They  desire  to  be  happy,  and  thus  learn  that  in 
order  to  become  so  they  must  ease  the  bur- 
dens and  contribute  to  the  happiness  of 
others.  They  desire  also  to  live  secure  in 
their  homes,  and  they  find  that  this  is  impos- 
sible until  they  take  away  the  motive  for 
crime  and  point  the  evil  doer  to  the  way  in 
which  he  may  enjoy  the  fruits  of  peaceful  and 
honest  labor.  In  this  correlation  of  moral 
and  intellectual  forces  man  speeds  onward 
to  the  millennial  morning.  The  heavens 
may    not     roll    together     like    a    scroll     nor 


NO  EXCKLLENCE   WITHOUT   LABOR.  I  57 

may  the  elements  melt  with  fervent  heat;  and 
the  last  enemy,  if  not  destroyed,  will  be 
turned  to  a  friend,  and  glorified  man  will  be 
clothed  with  the  attributes  of  absolute  moral 
perfection. 

God  of  all  times,  and  to  whom  all    means 
are  adequate, — 

With  spirit  sweet,  let  overflow 
The  grace  that  prompts  a  noble  deed, 
Into  the  hearts  of  high  and  low, 
Into  the  lives  of  all  that  need. 

In  righteous  cause,  help  us  to  fight 
With  arm  of  power.     May  we  be  strong 
To  save  beleaguered  right, 
And  smite  with  death  the  wrong. 

On  arid  soil  let  fall  thy  rain, 
That  none  shall  plant  and  toil  in  vain, 
And  bless  thou  too  the  seed  we  sow, 
That  harvests  fair  tor  others  grow. 

Help  thou  our  souls'  inmost  desire 
To  win  through  work  a  level  higher, 
Make  right  advance  and  truth  ne'er  fall, 
And  righteous  man  high  priest  of  all. 


NO  EXCELLENCE  WITHOUT  LABOR. 

The  rules  to  which  one  life  successfully 
conforms    may  be    too    narrow   for    another. 

Acbar  and  Nadir  were  children  of  the  des- 
ert, and  they  bore  for  one  another  the  love  of 


158  SOCIAL   CKOWril   AND  STABILITY. 

brothers.  Acbar  set  a  snare  in  the  jungle 
and  cauti:lu  a  lion's  whelp,  and  he  said,  "1 
will  make  glad  the  heart  of  my  brother 
Nadir  ;  the  young  lion  shall  be  his."  Then 
Acbar  brought  the  gift  to  his  friend,  and  the 
lads  having  made  a  cage  fastened  the  little 
captive  with  a  strong  cord.  They  gave  him 
food,  and  each  day  brought  from  their  father's 
tents  flesh  and  milk  for  the  young  lion  to  eat. 
He  grew  in  beauty  and  strength,  and  the  lads 
found  in  his  attention  much  delight.  One 
day  Acbar,  returning  from  the  desert,  found 
the  cage  broken  and  the  lion  gone.  The 
mangled  body  of  his  companion  Nadir 
explained  what  had  happened.  Acbar' s 
unfortunate  gift,  intended  for  his  friend's 
happiness,  had  been  the  means  of  his 
destruction. 

The  moral  of  this  story  will  as  well  apply 
to  the  mistakes  of  education  as  to  mistakes  in 
the  formation  of  social  and  convivial  habits. 
There  has  been  much  loss  of  opportunity  and 
of  energy  on  account  of  the  efforts  of  well- 
meaning  friends  in  trying  to  force  develop- 
ment in  the  line  of  the  greatest  resistance  ; 
trying  to  make  of  a  young  man  or  woman 
something  entirely  different  from  what  nature 
had  intended.      The  admonition  of  Longfel- 


NO  EXCELLENCE   WITHOLT  L.VBOR.  I  59 

low  was  all  right. —  ' Study  well."  he  said, 
"wherein  kind  nature  meant  you  to  excel." 
And  when  one  is  sure  he  is  in  the  right,  he 
may  push  on  as  though  driven  by  an  inexora- 
ble necessit 

It  is  not  meant  by  this  that  young  men  or 
young  women  should  pursue  their  education 
or  engage  up>on  the  subsequent  duties  in  life 
with  the  feeling  of  a  slave  whipped  to  his 
task,  but  that  whatever  they  undertake  should 
be  pushed  with  an  energy-  that  is  born  of 
enthusiasm.  They  will  find  rest  in  labor,  if  it 
is  congenial.  The  greatest  pleasure  people 
ever  enjoy  comes  from  the  successes  that 
repay  honest  and  intelligent  work.  When 
the  ruby  currents  that  fill  one's  veins  are 
strong  with  new  life,  he  ought  to  fear  no 
defeat  nor  be  deterred  by  difficulty.  Under- 
takings that  involve  labor,  endurance,  and 
courage  should  be  entered  upon  with  a  "  sub- 
lime audacit\-  of  faith."  When  this  is  done, 
success  will  await  only  convenience  in  com- 
ing. 

It  is  a  mistake  for  any  one  to  begin  the 
"  hustle  "  of  life  with  the  viciously  false  notion 
that  ever\-body  else  is  exclusively  engaged  in 
taking  care  of  themselves.  There  is  in  the 
world    much   that  is  unselfish,   much  that  is 


l60  SOCIAL   CROW  ril    AND   STABII.ITV. 

heroic.  There  are  many  who  are  cheerfully 
bearing  others'  burdens  ;  and  if  it  be  true  that 
there  are  also  those  who  oj^press  and  insult 
humanity,  there  are  others,  too,  whose  hearts 
swell  with  resentment  because  of  the  wrong. 
If  weakness  is  trampled  upon  and  inno- 
cence outraged,  there  are  also  eyes  flashing 
indignation  and  hands  outstretched  to  raise 
the  fallen  and  u|)hold  the  just.  Life  is  found 
to  have  both  a  pathetic  and  a  heroic  side. 
There  are  those  who  strive  with  persistent 
assiduity,  but  are  unsuccessful  in  winning  the 
prizes  for  which  they  contend.  Others  move 
on  from  one  success  to  another,  like  conquer- 
ing heroes  whose  progress  none  can  oppose. 
The  difference  between  these  classes  in  the 
results  secured  does  not,  as  many  suppose, 
distinguish  the  weak  from  the  strong  nor  the 
wise  from  the  foolish,  as  the  race  is  not  to  the 
swift  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong.  There  are 
other  things  than  prizes,  often  of  vastly 
greater  imi)ortance,  to  be  considered  when 
computing  results.  Emerson  has  said.  "  If 
there  is  anything  you  want,  pay  the  price  and 
take  it."  This  expresses  a  truth  which  has 
been  demonstrated  by  universal  experience. 
"  Cent  per  cent"  is  the  rule.  Nothing  of 
value  is  ever  achieved  without  labor.     "Vic- 


INTELLECTUAL   RUHHISH.  l6l 

tory,"  said  Napoleon,  "belongs  to  the  perse- 
vering." George  Eliot  accredited  nothing  to 
luck  and  placed  a  low  estimate  upon  genius. 
She  said,  "With  success  there  is  some 
science  in  planning,  some  skill  in  executing, 
and  withal  much  patience  and  labor." 

ACQUISITION    OF    INTELLECTUAL    RUBBISH. 

That  great  man  whose  head  was  always 
above  the  clouds,  whose  thought  has  given  to 
the  literature  of  this  age  its  greatest  value 
and  highest  perfection,  a  man  who  computed 
values  by  absolute  standards  and  whose  esti- 
mate never  fell  short  and  never  over-reached, 
declared,  "If  a  man  fails,  he  has  dreamed 
when  he  should  have  worked."  Aspiration 
and  a  talent  for  work  are  the  best  gifts  which 
any  young  man  or  woman  can  possess.  Noth- 
ing else  can  help  them  so  much  in  subduing 
the  obstinate  forces  that  will  frequently 
obtrude  themselves  in  the  pathway  of  mer- 
ited advancement.  If  in  one's  school  days  he 
has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  acquire  a  love  of 
learning  and  afterwards  to  strengthen  and 
confirm  the  passion  through  the  habit  of  study, 
his  education  will  continue  and  prosper,  and  by 
slow  and  gradual  accretion  intellectual  char- 
n 


1 62  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

acter  will  be  built  up,  and  in  this  pleasurable 
toil  there  will  be  gained  power  and  a  satisfac- 
tion which  are  the  exclusive  property  of 
ideas.  But  right  here  it  is  desired  to  caution 
young  persons  against  impatience  and  distrac- 
tions. The  fruit  that  ripens  early  is  not  that 
which  usually  possesses .  the  best  qualities. 
The  maturity  that  waits  until  the  autumn  shows 
in  its  perfection  the  substantial  and  permanent 
elements.  Precocity  is  of  doubtful  advan- 
tage. Straw  and  shavings  kindle  quickly  and 
blaze  brightly,  but  it  is  the  hard  black  anthra- 
cite that  gives  the  enduring  heat.  Growth 
and  a  healthy  expansion  of  mental  power 
should  in  all  cases  be  the  object  in  view. 
This  is  a  process  that,  beyond  certain  narrow 
limitations,  cannot  be  crowded  without  an 
impairment  of  vigor  and  the  encumbering  of 
a  class  of  intellectual  activities  which  cannot 
be  sacrificed  without  a  loss,  for  which  there  is 
no  compensation.  The  supply  of  mental  food 
should  never  be  greater  nor  less  than  the 
capacity  for  assimilation ;  a  famished  brain  is 
no  more  to  be  pitied  than  one  indulged  in 
gluttony.  There  are  few  heads  so  capacious 
as  to  afford  room  for  useless  vagaries  and 
superfluous  facts. 

The  story  has  been  told  of  a  mother  who 


INTELLECTUAL   RUBBISH.  1 63 

had   bought    for   her  Httlc  boy  a  new  suit  of 
clothes.      After   a    few    days    his    garments 
appeared  to  have  lost  something  of  their  orig- 
inal form  :  in  places  they  were  too  large  and 
in  other  places  too  small.     The  fit  which  at 
first   was    satisfactory   had   been  lost   in    un- 
shapely wrinkles  and   j^rotruding   parts.     An 
investigation    disclosed    that   little    Ned   had 
converted  his  pockets  into  general  storage  to 
the  extreme    limit  of   their    capacity.     They 
contained  such  treasures  as  old  spools,  pieces 
of  chalk  and  rubber,  bits  of   string  and  paper, 
a  tin  cup,  broken  door-knob,  etc.      The  child 
in  his  want  of  knowledge    concerning  values 
had  accumulated  these  worthless  articles,  un- 
der the   impression  that  they  might  be  made 
useful.      Many  persons  waste   years  of  valua- 
ble  time   in   storing  up    intellectual    rubbish, 
with  no  better   understanding  of  values  than 
had  little  Ned.     A  merchant  could  crowd  his 
warehouses  with  articles  that  can   neither  be 
used  nor  sold.      They  would  rei)resent  to  him 
no  actual  wealth;  he  would,  in  truth,  be  the 
poorer  by  reason  of  this  foolish  undertaking, 
in  the  fact  that  his  useless  merchandise  would 
occupy  space  that  might  l)e  otherwise  api)ro- 
priated  with  i)rofit.     And  thus  it  is  with  one's 
mental  properties.     He   may  gather  into  the 


1 64  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

Store-house  of  the  brain  many  facts,  and  yet 
remain  unlearned  in  every  true  sense  of  the 
word,  "  Knowledge  comes  and  wisdom 
lingers,"  says  Tennyson,  and  he  is  right.  The 
expenditure  of  time  and  mental  energy  is  not 
the  only  price  one  pays  for  the  trifiing  and 
worthless  things  he  gathers  from  poor  books 
and  the  unfortunate  associations  of  life.  The 
inanities  of  literature  and  of  society  have 
each  their  special  vices,  which  weaken  mental 
energy,  cheapen  the  aspirations,  and  in  the 
end  lead  to  intellectual  and  moral  atrophy. 

THE    READING  OF    BOOKS. 

One's  cultivation  and  growth  must,  it  will 
be  understood,  come  largely  from  books,  and 
of  these  there  is  no  end.  In  the  choice  of  read- 
ing much  care  is  required  ;  not,  however, 
because  of  the  great  number  of  books  that 
are  affirmatively  bad,  for  even  the  worst  will 
often  be  found  to  contain  something  instruct- 
ive. The  value  of  books  is  relative,  and 
among  the  best  some  will  be  found  better  than 
others.  Selection  must  be  made,  for  even  of 
those  having  great  value  only  a  small  portion 
can  ever  receive  the  attention  of  the  most 
diligent    student.      In   reading,  such  authors 


THE  READING  OF  BOOKS.         165 

should  be  selected  as  are  best  suited  to  the 
mental  conditions  of  the  reader,  if  general 
culture  alone  is  the  object  sought. 

The  purpose  of  reading  more  frequently 
than  otherwise  is  twofold.  First,  to  supply 
the  mind  with  such  nourishment  as  will  pro- 
mote growth ;  second,  to  acquire  a  knowl- 
edge of  special  facts.  Bacon  said,  "Reading 
maketh  a  full  man."  Without  it  there  m.ay 
be  a  vigorous  mentality,  with  abundant 
power  for  action  in  particular  directions,  but 
no  broad  culture  or  ripe  scholarship.  Indi- 
vidual experience  is  limited,  and  knowledge 
obtained  in  that  manner  must  be  supple- 
mented by  the  available  thoughts  and  experi- 
ences of  others,  if  one  would  round  out  to 
fulness  his  mental  character.  Reading  will 
be  attended  with  little  profit,  unless  it  is  done 
understandingly  and  with  a  studious  habit  of 
mind.  This  can  be  best  secured  by  stimulat- 
ing an  interest  in  the  subject  to  which  the 
reading  relates.  As  food  taken  into  the 
stomach  to  satisfy  a  keen  appetite  will  in 
most  cases  be  better  digested  and  assimilated 
than  when  the  meal  is  eaten  with  little  relish 
and  as  a  matter  of  habit  or  duty,  so  with  the 
reading  of  books;  if  curiosity  or  interest  in 
the  subject  is  sufficiently  active  to   keep   the 


I  60  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

various  faculties  of  the  mind  alert,  good  will 
result ;  but  when  interest  flags,  it  is  only  the 
severest  mental  discipline  that  will  prevent 
inanition. 

It  is  not  so  important  that  the  memory 
should  retain  permanently,  or  even  for  any 
considerable  period,  the  })articular  thoughts 
and  facts  acquired  in  reading ;  if  the  atten- 
tion is  sufficiently  arrested  at  the  time  to  pre- 
vent nebulosities  and  to  cause  the  thought  or 
the  fact  to  be  distinctly  apprehended,  the 
substantial  benefit  has  been  secured.  If 
there  has  been  assimilation,  growth  and 
fertility  necessarily  follow.  When  the  newly 
acquired  facts  or  thoughts  have  entered  into 
a  sort  of  mental  union  with  those  previously 
acquired,  the  chief  advantage  has  been 
gained,  new  riches  have  been  added,  and 
increased  power  will  result ;  mental  condi- 
tions are  changed  and  a  different  status  is 
fixed ;  a  departure  has  taken  place  and 
another  mental  character  will  appear,  quali- 
fied by  the  latest  study  or  the  latest  book, 
which  will  represent  the  product  of  all  that 
has  gone  before.  Many  analogies  are  pre- 
sented in  physical  nature. 

In    the   spring-time    the   farmer   carefully 


TIIK    READING   OK   BOOKS.  1 6/ 

loosens  the  soil  around  the  roots  of  his  fruit 
trees.  A  fertilizer  is  then  spread  upon  the 
broken  and  aerated  ground,  then  there  is 
skilful  pruning,  after  which  it  is  left  to  the 
generating  forces  of  nature  to  develop  the 
fruit.  The  soft  winds  and  warm  sunshine 
start  the  fructifying  currents.  Bud,  leaf, 
blossom,  fruit,  each  follows  in  its  order,  and 
each  receives  from  earth  and  air,  from  the 
light  and  the  darkness,  from  the  sunshine 
and  the  storm,  elemental  gifts.  In  the 
chemistry  of  nature  a  union  is  made,  and  in 
the  perfected  fruit  is  found  the  result  of  all 
the  co-operating  forces  employed  by  man  and 
never-sleeping,  persistent  nature. 

But  suppose  the  blushing  peach  were 
endowed  with  sentient  life  and  thought ; 
could  it  distinguish  in  the  compounding  of  its 
elements  and  say  that  this  is  the  product  of 
the  farmer's  digging,  pruning,  and  fertilizing; 
this  came  from  the  hand  of  nature ;  this  fiber 
was  given  it  by  the  earth  ;  this  nectar  fluid 
was  brought  on  the  wings  of  the  wind ;  here 
sat  the  dewdrop,  with  pencil  and  brush  to 
give  form  and  color  ?  No  ;  unities  of  accre- 
tion have  lost  their  individuality,  and  though 
indistinguishable   they  still  exist  as  parts  of  a 


1 68  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

new  and  more  complex  character,  which 
proves  the  unity  of  nature  in  the  miracle  of 
creation. 

The  interpretation  of  this  analogy  will 
express  what  is  meant  by  mental  growth. 
In  reading  the  best  books  one  is  affected 
with  the  personality,  the  inspiration,  and  the 
genius  of  the  great  men  and  women  who 
have  gained  preeminence  for  wisdom,  on 
account  of  exceptional  aptitudes  and  oppor- 
tunities in  respect  to  special  departments  of 
study.  This  intimate  and  continued  com- 
munion with  the  masters,  who  still  come  at  the 
student's  call  and  who  will  always  be  within 
easy  reach,  will  lodge  in  the  fertile  mind  a 
nebulae  of  wisdom  out  of  which  the  creative 
genius  will  form  new  worlds  of  thought. 

HARD  WORK   ESSENTIAL   TO   SUCCESS. 

An  eminent  preacher  once  declared  that 
at  twenty  he  began  to  gather  the  materials 
for  a  castle,  and  at  forty  he  was  content  to 
use  the  material  he  had  secured  to  build  a 
wood-shed.  This  remark  may  signify  how 
far  the  ambitions  of  youth  will  carry  one 
beyond  the  possibilities  of  achievement. 
Disappointments  of  this  kind  generally  arise 


WORK   ESSENTIAL  TO  SUCCESS.  1 69 

from  misdirected  energy.  It  is  only  when 
efforts  are  concentrated  along  the  working 
line  of  one's  desire  that  his  dream  of  castle- 
building  is  likely  to  be  realized.  Emerson 
was  more  encouraging  when  he  said,  "That 
which  we  earnestly  seek  after  when  young 
will  come  to  us  in  superfluous  abundance  in 
later  years."  The  divine  and  the  philoso- 
pher saw  the  two  sides  of  one  important 
truth,  and  both  spoke  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  different  experience.  One  had  dreamed 
and  the  other  had  worked. 

It  is  related  of  Daniel  Webster  that 
on  being  congratulated  on  account  of  a 
particularly  brilliant  passage  in  an  after- 
dinner  speech  he  confessed  to  having  first 
written  it  several  years  before ;  that  it  had 
been  repeatedly  changed  and  rewritten,  and 
when  thus  perfected  with  careful  painstaking 
and  labor  was  memorized,  confident  that  an 
occasion  would  arise  when  it  could  be  used 
with  effect. 

Edward  Everett,  It  is  said,  when  prepar- 
ing a  lecture  wrote  to  a  distant  friend,  asking 
his  judgment  in  regard  to  the  propriety  of  a 
particular  gesture  mentioned.  Both  of  these 
men  attained  a  very  distinguished  place  in 
oratory,    and    notwithstanding    the    pressing 


I/O  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITY. 

demands  on  Mr.  Webster's  time  in  connec- 
tion with  his  profession  as  a  hivvyer  and  a 
statesman  he  forced  his  attention  to  a  care- 
ful consideration  of  such  details  as  gave 
weight  to  his  personality,  and  caused  courts 
and  senates  to  yield  their  judgment,  under 
the  influence  of  his  majestic  thought, 
expressed  in  fitly-chosen  words. 

The  successful  man  must  not  only  work, 
but  he  must  do  so  unflaggingly.  Growth 
proceeds  from  continued  activity ;  its  forces 
are  persistent.  Genius  is  capricious,  and 
perhaps  more  frequently  than  otherwise  is  a 
curse  to  him  who  possesses  it,  while  the  gift 
of  application  is  always  a  blessing. 

Genius  has  lightest  wing  and  plumage  of  richest  dye. 

Like  a  comet,  watched  in  its  mysterious  flight, 
Dazzles,  with  sudden  flame,  its  passage  across  the  sky, 

Then  is  forever  lost  in  the  darkness  of  the  night. 

Work  rises  with  toilsome  feet.      Clad  in  dust  and  grime, 
It  onward  presses  through  the  long  expectant  day, 

With  patient,  upward  step.     Each  added  steep  to  climb. 
It  borrows  strength  from  hope, — life's  anchor,  beam,  and 
stay. 

The  slow  ascent  is  gained  at  last. 

Around  are  azure  skies. 
The  guerdon  won,  all  toil  is  pass'd, 

Work  wins  the  better  prize. 

Longfellow    has    pointed    out    the    pre- 
eminent   advantage    of    work    in    four    short 


INTELLECTUAL  AND  MORAL  (GROWTH.  171 

lines,   no  less  graceful  than  suggestive.     He 
wrote : 

"The  heights  by  great  men  gained  and  kept 
Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight, 
But  they,  while  their  companions  slept, 
Were  toiling  upward  in  the  night." 


INTELLECTUAL   AND   MORAL   GROWTH. 

While  in  considering  the  qualities  and 
quantities  that  most  contribute  to  success  labor 
is  here  given  the  place  of  highest  honor, 
the  writer  is  not  be  understood  as  estimating 
cheaply  those  exceptional  and  extraordinary 
gifts  of  nature  which  enable  their  possessors 
"to  see  the  unseeable  and  to  know  the 
unknowable."  If  one  is  a  lover  of  learning, 
the  fact  will  signify  a  good  deal  in  respect  to 
his  mental  character;  it  imports  a  habit  of 
study.  The  more  this  habit  is  persisted  in, 
the  more  it  will  become  accentuated  and  con- 
firmed. George  Eliot  said  of  one  of  her 
characters,  "Tito  was  experiencing  that 
inexorable  law  of  human  souls, — that  we  pre- 
pare ourselves  for  sudden  deeds  by  the  reiter- 
ated choice  of  good  or  evil."  In  other  words, 
habit  crystallizes  and  confirms  the  })redomi- 
nating  tendencies  of  one's  nature.  What  is 
often   done   becomes  easy.     This   fact  is  the 


i;2  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND   STABILITV. 

secret  of  the  artist's  skill  and  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal elements  of  scholarship.  When  the 
proper  direction  of  one's  life  is  secured, 
healthy  activity,  attention,  and  diligence  will 
do  the  rest.  A  distinguished  and  popular 
writer  has  said :  "Our  habits  make  amoral 
tradition  for  our  individual  selves,  as  the  life 
of  mankind  at  large  makes  a  moral  tradition 
for  the  race,  and  to  have  once  acted  greatly 
seems  to  make  a  reason  why  we  should 
always  be  noble." 

This  faithful  gathering  up  of  facts  and  ap- 
propriating thoughts  day  after  day  and  year 
after  year  and  making  them  a  part  of  one's 
mental  and  moral  life  is  what  constitutes 
growth.  Whatever  a  person  gains  in  this 
respect  will  attach  permanently  to  his  person- 
ality. The  increased  soul  and  intellectual 
energy  acquired  will  become  a  generating 
force  that  will  lift  him  up  and  carry  him  for- 
ward when  his  natural  powers  fail  or  are 
inadequate  to  meet  the  exigencies  which  have 
arisen. 

Tenn^'son  has  written : 

"  Men  rise  on  stepping  stones 
Of  their  dead  selves,  to  highest  things." 

And  again, 


INTELLECTUAL  AND   MORAL  GROWTH.  173 

"  Reach  out  the  hand  through  time  to  catch 
The  interest  of  well-spent  years." 

These  lines  express  the  lesson  which  it  is 
here  sought  to  make  plain  to  the  reader. 
Nothing  is  lost ;  mental  and  moral  force,  as 
well  as  physical,  is  conserved  and  correlated. 
Diligence  will  be  rewarded  by  the  richer  accu- 
mulation of  mental  resources.  There  w^ill 
always  be  quicker  and  clearer  perceptions  and 
larger  capabilities  for  action.  It  is  not  the 
fact  which  lies  hidden  in  the  storehouse  of  the 
mind  that  gives  power;  that  fact,  however 
important  in  its  special  character,  may  never 
serve  any  useful  purpose  as  an  independent 
agent.  Its  usefulness  may  arise  wholly  from 
its  relation  to  other  facts.  A  wheel  separated 
from  the  machine  of  which  it  is  a  part  will  be 
of  no  particular  value,  and  yet  the  machine 
w^ill  be  useless  w^ithout  it.  The  artist's  brush 
has  touched  the  canvas.  The  spot  being  care- 
fully examined  nothing  is  found  but  a  daub 
of  color,  considered  by  itself  without  beauty 
or  artistic  effect,  but  when  the  picture  is  com- 
plete it  is  discovered  that  this  particular 
touch  of  the  brush  has  its  importance  in  its 
relations  to  the  whole.  Thus  it  is  that  one's 
education  is  made  up  of  the  units  of  his  tui- 
tions  and    his    experience.     Standing    alone 


174  SOCIAL   GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

many  of  these  units,  perhaps  most  of  them, 
arc  without  special  value,  but  in  their  relation 
to  others  each  as  a  part  of  the  whole  is  use- 
ful and  sometimes  indispensable  ;  they  are  the 
threads  that  make  the  strong  cable.  Seed  is 
planted  in  the  fertile  earth,  but  it  will  not 
germinate  unless  other  things  are  suj^iilied  ; 
there  must  be  heat,  moisture,  light,  and  air. 
So,  too,  a  single  idea  will  not  thrive  except  it 
is  nourished  from  the  contact  or  association 
of  others. 

Everything  one  does  or  neglects  to  do 
(for  failure  to  act,  when  action  is  necessary, 
becomes  a  potential  agent  for  evil),  changes 
his  relations  to  his  former  self.  He  is  either 
better  or  worse;  there  is  added  fertility  or 
sterility;  there  comes  an  increased  richness 
of  intellectual  and  moral  natures  or  a  greater 
impoverishment.  He  reads  a  book  and  is 
never  afterwards  quite  the  same.  If  the  au- 
thor has  secured  his  attention,  he  will  leave 
in  his  mind  something  of  the  thought  of  the 
book,  and  thereby  his  mental  character  will 
be  modified  to  the  extent  that  he  is  impressed 
and  influenced  by  the  thought  with  which  he 
has  been  brought  into  touch  ;  subsequently 
his  observations  will  be  made  and  experience 
had    under    different    lights.     He  will  view 


SCHOOLS  A  SOCIAL  FACTOR.  I  75 

things  from  a  different  angle  ;  he  will  esti- 
mate conduct  and  comi)ute  values  from  stand- 
ards that  have  perhaps  unconsciously  been 
changed.  This  touch  of  mind,  so  delicate  as 
to  defy  all  sense  perception,  is  of  daily  and 
hourly  ex}jerience.  There  is  imparted  thought 
and  thought-bearing  suggestion  ;  there  comes 
from  others  through  the  silent  pages  of  a 
book  and  in  a  thousand  other  ways  the  inspi- 
ration of  facts  and  ideas  that  stimulate  growth 
and  impel  action. 

THE    SCHOOL-HOUSE    AS   A    SOCIAL    FACTOR. 

Education  is  a  slow  and  often  unconscious 
process.  It  begins  with  the  first  sensation  of 
pleasure  or  pain  experienced  by  the  infant 
folded  to  its  mother's  breast,  and  ends,  it  is 
hoped,  in  the  perfection  of  one's  intellectual 
nature,  if  such  a  thing  is  conceivable.  The 
processes  of  growth  and  development  will  be 
hastened  or  retarded,  as  opportunities  for 
each  individual  are  supplied  or  withheld. 
That  which  most  concerns  society  at  this  time 
is  not  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  protection  of 
our  manufacturers,  or  the  extension  of  com- 
merce, however  imj)ortant  these  questions 
may  be,  but  the  building  ujj  of  a  civilization 


176  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

that  shall  become  the  hope  and  glory  of  the 
coming  centuries,  founded  on  the  basis  of  a 
manhood,  elevated  to  the  highest  plane  of 
moral  and  mental  culture.  The  social,  polit- 
ical, and  econoniical  interests  of  this  country 
will  depend  almost  wholly  on  the  moral  and 
intellectual  conditions  of  its  people.  The 
products  of  the  school-house,  instead  of  the 
farm  and  the  factory,  are  first  in  their  impor- 
tance. 

"  Still  sits  the  school  house  by  the  road 
A  ragged  beggar  sunning," 

sang  the  poet,  and  yet  with  all  its  neglect 
and  modest  pretensions,  in  its  latent  poten- 
tialities are  wrapped  the  well-being  of  the 
race.  The  solitary  school-house  by  the  road- 
side, "where  the  sumachs  grow  and  black- 
berry vines  are  running,"  with  its  "door-worn 
sill"  and  "charcoal  frescoes  on  its  wall,"  is 
greater,  in  respect  to  the  benefits  secured, 
than  the  railroads  which  hold  state  to  state 
with  iron  bands ;  greater  than  all  the  navies 
w^hich  float  upon  the  seas ;  greater  than  all 
our  broad  fields  of  wheat  and  corn  ;  greater 
than  banks,  stores,  or  factories ;  yea,  greater, 
a  hundred  times,  than  all  combined,  "for  out 
of  it  proceeds  the  issues  of  life."  From  the 
bosom  of  this  "ragged  beggar"  comes  forth 


COMPULSORY   EDUCATION.  I// 

increased  intellectual  and  moral  ener<(y, 
endowed  with  the  genius  for  creating;  in  this 
humble,  out-of-the-way  place  is  generated  a 
force  that  moves  the  world,  without  discord 
and  strife.  It  builds  ships  and  railroads,  it 
plants  fields  and  gathers  the  ripened  harvests. 
Without  the  awakened  and  stimulated  aspira- 
tion, without  the  quickened  and  disciplined 
mentality  that  comes  from  the  schools  com- 
merce would  be  impossible  and  the  railroad 
and  navy  unnecessary ;  without  this  support 
the  intellectual  life  and  activity  which  so  dis- 
tinguishes this  age  and  this  people  would 
languish,  and  a  degeneracy  would  come  to 
exist,  involving  all  interests,  financial,  politi- 
cal, social,  and  moral.  In  a  government  of 
the  people  stability  and  greatness  will 
depend  upon  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of 
the  individual  citizen. 

COMPULSORY   EDUCATION. 

Men  "do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns  or 
figs  from  thistles,"  neither  can  wise  and 
permanent  government  be  founded  upon  the 
quicksands  of  ignorance  and  degradation. 
Carlyle  has  said,  "Anarchy  ceases  to  be 
anarchical  when  it  comes  to  have  a  soul  in  it." 

12 


178  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

So,  too,  the  dan<(ers  that  threaten  the  peace 
and  j)erpetiiity  of  this  rej)ublic  will  disappear 
when  the  masses  are  taught  to  think.  Igno- 
rance is  the  one  element  of  weakness  and  dis- 
cord from  which  there  is  most  to  fear  ;  it  is 
the  ugly  and  deformed  mother  of  crime, 
passion,  and  pauperism.  The  state  has  a 
right  to  protect  itself  against  these  evils, 
w^hich  threaten  its  peace  and  stability,  by  the 
enforced  education  of  those  who  are  to 
become  its  citizens,  and  to  provide  for  the 
minimum  of  weakness  and  danger  and  the 
maximum  of  strength  and  security.  It  is 
incumbent  upon  the  state,  if  parents  or 
natural  guardians  fail  to  do  their  duty,  to 
attend  to  this  matter,  in  which  it  has  a  very 
large  contingent  interest.  The  state  will  sus- 
tain an  incalculable  loss  if  its  future  citizens  are 
not  educated  and  fully  equipped  and  qualified 
to  perform  their  part  in  making  and  execut- 
ing the  laws,  and  otherwise  controlling  the 
passion  and  turbulence  that  are  likely  to  arise 
w^here  unwisdom  and  selfishness  abound. 
Influence  is  not  measured  by  length  of  days, 
nor  by  the  number  of  years.  The  lives  of 
men  and  w^omen,  their  characters,  their 
w^ords  and  deeds,  will  be  incorporated  into 
other  lives  and   characters  and  will   become 


TIIK   COMINC    MAN   MKRCIKl'l..  179 

the  basis  of  living  thoughts  and  worthy 
deeds  all  along  down  the  ages  of  the  future. 
This  generation  may  render  blessings  to  pos- 
terity by  a  faithful  insistence  that  children 
shall  not  be  defrauded  of  their  birthright  to  a 
common-school  education,  and  that  after 
school  days  are  ended,  the  hours  of  labor 
shall  be  so  shortened  that  opportunity  will  be 
afforded  to  indulge  scholarshij)  in  those 
whose  aspirations  have  been  awakened  by 
earlier  tuitions. 

THE    COMING    MAN    MERCIFUL. 

True  manhood  calls  for  a  large  measure  of 
manliness.  The  soul  must  be  discernible  in 
conduct.  "  To  bind  the  hearts  of  others  to 
his  own"  one  must  not  only  be  just  and  uj)- 
right,  but  besides  this  his  acts  must  show  that 
his  heart  is  too  large  and  too  full  of  generous 
sympathy  to  be  concerned  only  with  matters 
of  personal  advantage.  There  must  be  such 
abnegation  of  self  that  he  will  be  willing  to 
do  more  than  the  social  compact  requires,  in 
his  efforts  to  advance  the  well  being  of  others. 
A  person  who  is  indifferent  to  the  hai)})iness 
of  his  fellows,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  ac- 
cidents of  fortune  or  education  by  which  he  is 


l80  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

affected,  occupies  a  low  plane  of  manhood, 
and  is  not  to  be  congratulated  on  account  of 
his  attainments.  A  person  who  cannot  so  far 
subordinate  his  selfish  instincts  as  to  do  unto 
others  as  he  would  that  others  should  do  unto 
him  does  not  stand  in  the  front  rank  of 
Christian  endeavor,  nor  can  he  be  called  hon- 
est in  any  true  sense  of  the  word.  The  true 
man  is  less  intellectual  than  sympathetic ;  he 
is  attracted  more  by  heart  throbs  than  by 
brain  scintillations.  A  cold,  calculating  men- 
tality, like  the  dynamo  or  steam  engine,  has 
its  business  uses,  but  no  other,  and  like  a  tiger 
it  may  be  admired  for  its  wild  grace  and  fero- 
cious strength,  but  never  loved.  It  is  praise- 
worthy of  course  to  perform  faithfully  one's 
engagements  ;  it  w^ould  be  blameworthy  to  do 
less.  The  formal  w^ords  of  a  contract  express 
the  legal  obligations,  but  there  is  generally 
something  else  understood  and  implied ; 
something  perhaps  in  the  engagement  to  be 
emphasized  or  something  to  be  qualified. 
The  dialectics  of  business  and  of  social  life 
have  failed  to  express  the  exact  intention  of 
the  parties;  there  is  a  soul  in  the  bond  that 
appeals  for  interpretation  to  the  souls  of  the 
obligor  and  obligee.  When  that  occurs,  a 
literal  performance  of  the  contract  according 


THE  COMING   MAN   MERCIFUL.  l8l 

to  its  letter  will  ac(iuit  the  party  bound,  but  a 
chivalrous  regard  for  one  another's  rights  will 
cause  the  contract  to  be  performed  in  its 
spirit  instead  of  its  letter.  There  may  be 
something  for  justice  to  add,  or  something  to 
be  taken  away. 

In  the  Mc reliant  of  Venice,  Shylock  is 
represented  as  having  loaned  three  thousand 
ducats,  and  to  secure  rei)ayment  takes  a  bond 
from  Antonio,  conditioned  that  in  case  of  for- 
feiture he  should  be  entitled  to  take  a  pound  of 
f^esh  from  the  body  of  him  who  signed  the 
bond.  Shylock,  when  claiming  his  forfeit, 
reasons  in  the  following  faultless  manner  • 

"What  judgment  shall  I  dread,  doing  no  wrong  ? 
The  [)ound  of  flesh  which  I  demand  of  him,  is  mine, 
And  I  will  have  it ; 
If  you  deny  me,  fie  upon  your  law, 
I  stand  for  judgment.     Answer  ;  shall  I  have  it  ?  " 

The  bond  of  course  was  held  good,  and  for 
a  reason  just  as  valid  now  as  then,  for  the 
literal  performance  of  a  contract.  It  was 
urged  that  it  should  be  nullified  in  the  inter- 
est of  mercy,  but  Portia  objected,  saying  : 

"  It  must  not  be. 

'Twill  be  regarded  for  a  precedent ; 
And  many  an  error  by  the  same  example, 
Will  reach  into  the  state  ; 
It  cannot  be." 


1 82  SOCIAL   GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

The  magnificent  duke  voiced  the  moral 
sentiment  of  to-day  much  better  than  that  of 
two  centuries  and  a  half  ago,  when  he  char- 
acterized Shylock,  seeking  the  forfeit  of  his 
bond,  in  these  words  : 

"  Inhuman  wretch, 
Incapable  of  pity,  void  and  empty 
From  any  dram  of  mercy." 

This  sentiment  is  born  of  a  spirit  that  be- 
longs to  the  future  more  than  to  the  past,  and 
in  its  continued  modifications  the  accumulated 
experience  of  mankind  will  give  to  it  an  in- 
creased tenderness.  It  will  express  the 
greater  value  of  human  rights  and  human 
hearts  than  silver  dollars  and  golden  ducats. 


THE   DIVINITY   OF  JUSTICE. 

That  man  who  has  made  most  illustrious 
the  philosophic  literature  of  this  age  refers 
to  "the  mystic  line"  which  separates  the 
interests  of  one  person  from  those  of 
another.  There  are  not  always  high  walls  or 
deep  moats  dividing  "  mine  from  thine."  One 
may  sometimes  pass  from  one  side  to  the 
other  without  being  conscious  of  the  fact. 
Appeal    may    be    made    to    contracts  and    to 


THE   DIVINITY   OF  JUSTICE.  1 83 

courts  and  no  clue  as  to  the  location  of  the 
true  line  of  separation  obtained,  unless  it  is 
pointed  out  by  that  divinity  of  justice,  whose 
throne  is  the  soul  of  the  righteous  man,  with- 
out whose  inspiration  and  guidance  both  the 
law  and  the  contract  will  frequently  become 
instruments  of  wrong  and  oppression. 

Opinion  is  often  the  result  of  causes 
remote  and  complicated.  Things  are  judged 
as  they  are  seen  and  understood  from  differ- 
ent angles  of  vision.  Disagreements  there- 
fore concerning  a  great  variety  of  subjects 
are  to  be  expected,  and  in  fact  are  among  the 
most  common  experiences.  A  consciousness 
that  one  is  often  wrong  should  make  him 
tolerant  in  respect  to  the  infirmities  of  judg- 
ment in  others,  and  when  he  finds  that  he 
has  mistaken  the  wTong  for  the  right  and 
that  another  has  been  injured  because  of  his 
error,  he  should  hasten  to  make  apology  and 
offer  reparation  for  the  injury  done.  And 
so,  too,  he  should  be  no  less  considerate  of 
those  who  have  rendered  to  him  evil  for 
good.  One  of  the  sweet  singers  of  American 
literature  has  said : 

"Forgiveness  is  the  fragrance,  rare  and  sweet, 
That  flowers  yield  when  trampled  on  by  feet, 
That  reckless,  tread  the  tender,  teeming  earth." 


1 84  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

Prerogative  and  pride  of  opinion,  which 
prevent  an  acknowledgment  of  wrong  and 
the  reestablishment  of  mutual  confidence  on 
the  basis  of  respect  and  true  manliness,  are 
inconsistent  with  a  just  conception  of  both 
one's  privilege  and  his  duty.  The  story  is  told 
in  an  old  book  that  two  friends  for  some  trivial 
cause  had  become  estranged,  but  afterward 
desiring  to  be  reconciled  the  question  arose, 
as  it  frequently  will,  as  to  which  of  the  two 
should  make  the  first  advances.  The  oracle 
was  consulted,  and  his  decision  was  that  the 
best  hearted  of  the  two  should  be  the  first  to 
come  forward  with  offers  of  peace  and  recon- 
ciliation. Life  is  too  short  and  too  crowded 
with  its  important  concerns  to  justify  one  in 
nursing  enmities,  or  in  withholding  from  the 
meanest  of  his  fellows  an  act  of  justice. 

BELIEF   IN   GOD   NECESSARY. 

Studies  that  engage  attention,  except  per- 
haps those  that  relate  to  exact  science,  will 
create  moral  as  well  as  intellectual  activities. 
While  science  does  not  strongly  appeal  to 
sentiment,  it  is  full  of  noble  suggestions. 
The  heart  and  its  warm  sympathies  may  not 
become    involved,    but    careful    search    after 


BELIEF  IN  GOD  NECESSARY.  1 85 

principles  that  lead  to  definite  results,  princi- 
ples that  underlie  all  physical  phenomena, 
that  antedate  worlds  and  will  exist  un- 
changed when  chaos  shall  come  again,  will 
be  a  labor  well  appointed  to  elevate  charac- 
ter and  give  to  conduct  such  support  as  to 
safely  fortify  it  against  the  temptations  that 
arise  from  the  lower  class  of  instincts,  appe- 
tites, and  cheap  desires  for  distinction.  In 
the  study  of  history,  philosophy,  and  general 
literature,  one  Vv^ill  find  much  to  stir  thought 
concerning  the  question  of  moral  duty,  and 
he  can  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the 
obligations  resting  upon  him  in  this  respect. 
He  will  learn  to  hate  the  wrong  from  often 
seeing  it  painted  in  colors  that  appropriately 
describe  its  native  ugliness,  and  in  the  same 
manner  that  his  repugnances  for  violence  and 
oppression  and  deceit  are  formed  and  incor- 
porated into  his  character  he  will  come  to 
love  justice,  honor,  and  duty;  and  the  con- 
templation of  these  qualities  will  so  far  in- 
volve the  sympathies  and  affections  that  un- 
conscious and  involuntary  action,  recognizing 
the  good,  will  take  the  place  of  those  exclu- 
sive and  selfish  instincts  which  prove  his 
relationship  to  the  primitive  savage,  and 
which  centuries  of  heart  throbbings  and  gen- 


1 86  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND  STABILITY. 

eroiis  culture  have  not  been  able  to  subdue 
nor  even  to  wholly  disguise. 

If  one  is  living  without  a  god,  he  should 
make  haste  to  find  one  suited  to  his  per- 
sonal needs,  and  in  this  respect  he  should 
not  be  easily  satisfied.  That  which  is 
worshiped  should  be  nothing  less  than  the 
absolute.  Life  is  too  full  of  nebulosity  and 
conduct  too  much  entangled  with  duty  and 
desire,  with  belief  and  doubt,  to  trust  one's 
self  in  action  without  a  guiding  and  govern- 
ing spirit.  A  frequent  recurrence  to  funda- 
mental principles  is  indispensable  in  charac- 
ter-building. No  man  can  be  absolutely  self- 
reliant,  nor  can  he  be  certain  of  the  integrity 
of  his  conduct  without  standards  of  an  infalli- 
ble character  and  without  faith  in  a  "divinity 
that  hedges  him  about."  It  will  often  become 
necessary  to  test  his  conduct  by  these  stand- 
ards, and  to  ascertain  through  communion 
with  the  great  soul  of  the  universe  and  its 
invisible  relations  whitherward  he  is  being  led 
by  the  instincts  of  his  nature  ;  whether  the 
circumstances  that  influence  his  daily  action 
curb  his  better  impulses  or  set  them  free. 

It  is  man's  privilege  to  command,  and  one 
after  another  of  the  great  orators,  poets,  his- 
torians,   and    philosophers,   whose    luminous 


MAN   MAKES   HIS  OWN  MANHOOD.  1 87 

thoughts  aid  words  have  been  the  best  inspi- 
ration of  the  past,  will  come  forth  from  their 
retirement  and  discourse  to  coming  man  from 
the  riches  of  their  wisdom  and  with  most  ex- 
alted mood.  These  men  have  left  of  their 
lives  all  that  is  worth  preserving.  Their 
frailties  have  gone,  but  the  imperishable 
thought  remains.  These  have  been  selected 
and  carefully  winnowed  of  everything  that 
has  not  been  touched  with  the  powers  of  life. 
What  a  privilege  this.  What  incomparable 
opportunities  for  knowledge  and  growth. 

MAN   MAY   MAKE   HIS   OWN   MANHOOD. 

Manners  belong  not  wholly  to  the  embel- 
lishment of  conduct.  For  such  uses  they  are 
important,  it  is  true ;  to  most  persons  they 
have  a  deeper  significance  and  are  properly 
regarded  as  an  index  to  character.  Chester- 
field was  no  doubt  more  distinguished  for  his 
polished  manners  than  for  good  morals.  Not- 
withstanding many  notable  exceptions  the 
rule  holds  that  manners  express  the  sincerity, 
goodness,  and  nobility  of  the  soul,  and  they 
who  possess  them,  Emerson  says,  may  enter 
anywhere  and  be  sure  of  a  welcome.  Man- 
ners not  based  upon  character  are  as  unreal 


1 88  SOCIAL  GROWTH   AND  STABILITY. 

as  the  "  painted  ship  upon  a  painted  ocean  ;" 
in  such  case  they  will  consist  of  disguises  which 
will  deceive  no  one  of  penetration.  No  mat- 
ter what  the  mask  or  how  skilfully  worn,  an 
Argus-eyed  world  will  find  it  out  and  put  a 
true  estimate  upon  what  it  was  intended  to 
conceal.  Plausible  words,  simulation,  and 
dissimulation  are  the  coins  of  cheats  and 
mountebanks,  and  will  be  stamped  with  the 
discredit  of  honest  people. 

Life,  with  its  traditional  curse  of  briars 
and  thorns  and  its  fabled  sources  of  sin 
presents  man  with  such  hopes  and  possibili- 
ties as  should  stir  every  sleeping  energy  to 
wakeful  activity.  There  are  toil  and  self- 
denial  in  the  road  before  him  always,  but 
there  are  also  flowers  of  beauty  that  he  may 
reach  out  and  pluck ;  there  are  joys,  many 
and  substantial,  to  reward  his  labor.  In  later 
life  there  may  come  to  him  honorable 
triumphs,  hung  with  the  jewels  of  well-spent 
years,  in  the  enjoyment  of  which  there  will  be 
satisfaction,  fruition,  and  compensation  for  all 
the  pains  and  disappointments  he  has  been 
called  to  experience.  He  has  the  example  of 
the  wise  and  good  of  all  ages  to  inspire  and 
encourage  him.  There  is  a  potential  intelli- 
gence in  the  moral  government  of  the  universe 


MAN   MAKES   HIS  OWN  MANHOOD.  1 89 

that  returns  cent  per  cent  for  every  neglected 
talent,  every  wasted  energy,  and  every  vicious 
indulgence.  It  is  inexorable  in  its  decrees 
and  leaves  to  no  chance  the  rewards  due  to 
lives  devoted  to  honest  effort.  He  should 
strive  therefore  to  perform  worthily  in  all 
things,  to  neglect  no  opportunity  while  the 
day  lasts  to  add  to  his  knowledge  and  useful- 
ness. He  should  plant  in  fertile  soils  and  be 
diligent  in  all  things  that  will  enlarge,  dig- 
nify, and  ennoble  manhood  ;  and  when  the 
deeper  shadows  come  to  flit  and  fall  along  his 
pathway,  he  may  look  back  through  well- 
spent  years,  with  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  he  has  enjoyed  no  pleasures  he  did  not 
earn,  and  that  life  has  been  made  sweeter  to 
others  ;  that  it  has  had  a  broader  and  richer 
experience  and  deeper  significance  because  of 
his  efforts. 

In  the  nebulae  of  matter,  in  the  chaos  of 
elements  there  are  available  to  man  the 
materials  of  which  he  may  select,  organize 
and  build,  with  either  honor  or  shame.  The 
election  is  his ;  which  shall  it  be  ?  There  is 
something  here  to  pray  for,  there  is  some- 
thing here  to  strive  for ;  one  will  be  vain 
without  the  other.  Providence  gives  nothing 
as  a  boon.     That  which  one  prizes  so  lightly 


I  go  SOCIAL  GROWTH  AND   STABILITY. 

as   to  be   unwilling  to   give   the   price  of  his 
labor  will  always  be  withheld. 

Then  struggle  up  with  faith  sublime, 
Slipping  perchance,  yet  higher  climb. 

A  good  heart  and  a  healthy,  well-culti- 
vated mind  are  the  pillars  upon  which  all 
great  characters  rest.  They  are  the  Jachin 
and  Boaz,  between  which  the  noble  men  and 
women  of  all  ages  have  passed  to  receive  the 
approbation  of  the  wise  and  just.  At  their 
base  are  usefulness  and  strength ;  their 
capitals  are  adorned  wdth  flowers  and  chap- 
lets,  distinguishing  the  grace  and  beauty  of 
words  and  deeds,  expressing  sweetness,  dig- 
nity, and  power  from  the  coarse  repugnances 
that  come  from  rude  natures  and  unlettered 
lives. 

When  all  of  planting  has  ripened  into 
harvests,  when  the  dreams  and  hopes  of 
youth  have  crystallized  into  the  substantial 
forms  that  brains  have  conceived  and  hands 
have  shapened ;  when  all  the  moments  of 
opportunity  and  attention  have  been  gath- 
ered and  connected  into  the  beautiful  struc- 
tures which  have  grown  out  of  fidelity  and 
patience  ;  when  the  evening  hour  approaches, 
may  all  look  back  with  the  satisfaction  that 


MAN  MAKES  HIS  OWN   MANHOOD.  I9I 

comes  from  having  chosen  wisely  in  the 
appUcation  of  their  time  and  energy.  Here 
Emerson  adds, 

"  Go  speed  the  stars  of  thought 
On  to  their  shining  goal; 
The  sower  scatters  broad  his  seeds, 
The  wheat  thou  strewest  be  souls." 


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